Ecological Observation of the Urban Winter

(2 Credits)

“Winterkill” is the term for the increased mortality rate in winter months for plants and animals due to harsh weather, malnutrition, starvation, disease, and predation. But what good (contentment) can come from studying winter ecology? This course will use the megacity of New York as an ecological field site to examine this question. In winter landscapes, ecological signals become subtler but also more legible: branching structures, bark textures, shoreline traces, migratory bird activity, wind patterns, and dormant plant forms invite sustained looking and repeated return to place. This course intentionally centers winter observation rather than peak-season biodiversity in order to foreground attention as a research practice. Working on Governors Island and Central Park in January allows students to encounter environmental knowledge as something constructed through patience. By pairing site-based observation with research visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Thomas J. Watson Library, students will situate the field notebooks that they create within longer traditions of environmental representation. Students will learn to learn to treat drawing, annotation, and citizen-science participation as complementary methods of observation.