Nature and Human Communities Initiative
Currently the recipient of grants from the Conservation Fund, the Degenstein Foundation, and the John Ben Snow Trust, NHCI focuses on the human-nature relationship in the Susquehanna Valley and beyond. The Initiative seeks to develop new environmental approaches in the region beyond the study of only quantitative physical relationships in the sciences and environmental planning, by focusing on qualitative connections between nature, culture, and society, with applicability to the world at large. Participants have an active interest in bringing a humanistic perspective to the study of the region in terms of how people have had an impact on their environment and how the environment has reciprocally shaped communities, literature, and the imagination. Read more
Envisioning A Regional Environmental Humanities
Imagine school children, university students and local residents kayaking or hiking down the Susquehanna Corridor, walking the streets of rivertowns, or navigating the Valley in cyberspace. They encounter interpretive signage and data on-site, on-line, in-print, or through artistic storytelling, highlighting layers of culture engaged with the natural systems around them. Such guides reflect ongoing scholarly and creative projects ranging from oral history and archaeology to community service and school curricula designed to strengthen “sense of place,” cultural authenticity, and environmental health in a unique (and neglected) region of Northern Appalachia. Read more
NHCI’s primary programmatic focus is Cultures at the Confluence: Mapping the Susquehanna Valley from the Inside. The Susquehanna region of northern Appalachia often has often been defined (and neglected) from the outside. This three-year-old program seeks to highlight the intersection of cultural landscapes and narratives with environmental systems from a perspective inside the region, emanating from the historic juncture of the north and west branches of the Chesapeake Bay’s main feeder river. Read more
The Susquehanna Writers Institue began in summer 2009 with support from the Snow Trust. Working with select students in an intense workshop on nonfiction writing, to develop narrative content material for online projects in oral history, nature writing and “deep mapping” of cultural landscapes. To be coordinated with “sense of place” education in local school districts. Read more
Susquehanna Colloquium for Nature and Human Communities
A watershed-wide network of academics and community members involved in the above projects. Its projects include the journal Watershed, published from Bloomsburg University by editor Jerry Wemple.
Rivertowns Initiative
The Cultures at the Confluence program is also allied with the Bucknell Rivertowns Initiative, with its focus on social-ecological community studies and academic community service.
