I attended Hanover College in southern Indiana during my freshman and sophomore year of college. This school sits on top of the Ohio River (shown above) on a 650-acre campus. While this large area only houses about 1,200 students, this liberal-arts school includes many hiking trails and waterfalls surrounding it. At this school, I came to love, admire, and appreciate the value of my education and the relationships I made through soccer, RAing, and in my sorority. Plus, my campus was absolutely stunning. Below are some select works from my favorite courses my freshmen year.
Archaeological Methods and Theory - This course allowed me to explore one of my interests which was outside of my major: archaeology. This course was a May term class, which allowed me to dive into this topic for the whole month of May as it was my only course during that term. I not only learned about the methods and ideals of archaeology in the classroom, but was able to apply them in a filed experience at an archaeological dig site. I learned techniques of research design, excavation, data collection and analysis, dating methods, samples, surface survey, site preservation, and artifact conservation. To the left is a paper I wrote on two topics we discussed during the class: looting and destroying cultural heritage. The essay explores the differences between looting and destroying, the intentions of the actions, the effects of the actions, and punishments for the two crimes. It also discusses the idea of hiring locals to help at archaeological dig sites in order to decrease the possibility of looting while helping locals learn about their cultural heritage in a hands-on manner rather than learning about it after their heritage has been excavated from outsiders.
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Theological Perspectives on Nature - During this course, I came to interpret various perceptions on "nature" through the eyes of famous theologians. I was able to determine how the Bible recognized and portrayed nature, along with Augustine, Aristotle, Annie Dillard (in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek), and many others. In a semester long project for this course, I also picked one spot on campus that I would be once a week. While at this spot, I kept a journal and wrote. The writings varied from interpreting the spot through the eyes of an author we had a work from that week, poetry about the site, observing the details, describing the location, the connection and meaning I felt with the place, and more. This project allowed me to better understand various views about not only "nature," but also the differing outcomes of how people chose to perceive the natural world. To the left is an essay wrote critiquing Augustine's model of the natural world. It defines his model, how his model causes people to interpret the world, the actions people have towards nature by applying this model, and the intentions or motives behind their actions through this model.
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Philosophical Perspectives on Nature - Ah, yes! My favorite class from freshman year, and one of my all-time favorites still! In those course, we examined central philosophical issues by investigating different concepts of nature. These concepts came from a wide scope of famous authors, such as Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, David Brower, and others! As each concept of nature not only says something different about the natural world, but also what it means to be human, our relationship with the natural world, and our responsibility to it. To the right is one essay I wrote during this course. The states what I believe the proper relationship humans should have with nature is and why , using various authors' concepts to support my thesis. (Keep in mind that this essay was from my freshmen year, and my thoughts have transformed and expanded since then!) |
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