FYS: Trees: Ecology, Aesthetics, Society

3 Credits.

This First-Year Seminar will take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of trees. We will consider them ecologically, studying tree biology and how they interact with each other and neighboring species; aesthetically, studying what makes them beautiful and how artists and writers represent them; and socially, studying the various choices humans make that affect trees. To do so, we will interact with a variety of media and genres, reading poetry and prose (fiction and non-fiction), looking at art, and watching film. Authors, artists, and directors will range widely, and may include Basho, Ross Gay, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Peter Wohlleben, Richard Powers, Vincent Van Gogh, Hayao Miyazaki, and Víctor Erice. The course will also include several walking tours (on and off campus), during which we will learn about trees in our home city of Baltimore. Field trips may include the Cylburn Arboretum and a local urban orchard. The main project will be a handwritten attention log, in which students will write about a particular tree they “adopt” on campus.