Encounter Narrative
For this final assignment, you will be communicating about ecological issues through speculative or historical fiction by applying knowledge from the literature and concepts we have read and discussed this semester, without the constraints of the present biological world. Working in groups of 3-4 students, you will create a collaborative storytelling project that explores the importance of place and situation as well as the impact of an invasive or alien species found in encounter narratives like Annihilation and Dawn. Narratives may be speculative but based on research into a real-world place—similar to how the setting of Area X was inspired by St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Florida, or, how New York 2140 imagines a future flooded urban environment due to global warming. Narratives should explore one or more scientific hypotheses related to ecological themes that we have explored in this class, and illustrated through an invasive encounter between humans and nonhumans, or, between nonhuman lifeforms. Possible themes to include are climate change, extinctions, rewildings, mutation and/or adaptation. You must stay true to the science of the hypotheses you are communicating about, but you have autonomy of the time, the plot, and the biological characters.
Narratives should include “documents” utilizing a variety of types of writing, such as: transcripts of interviews with people who encountered the invasive species, third-person accounts of events, poems, photographs with extended captions (similar to the eco-postcards), maps, charts, or illustrations. We encourage you to include visual components alongside written documents. Once you have created these documents, you will extrapolate further causes-and-effects, or action-reaction sequences, to create a more complicated story, interweaving multiple perspectives that come into contact with the invasive species. In exploring these options, you would weave in references to the ecology, geology, culture, and other “sedimentary layers” of place where the species dwell and the places they are seen (or not seen). You might also include “true-life” accounts of the aftermath of Fortean events—phenomena which seem to challenge the boundaries of accepted scientific knowledge—or even natural events of a magnitude to change the lives of those caught up in them.
Although you can complete parts of this project solo, the group project has three steps:
Based on the class composition, each group will have at least one Biology major and one English major, reflecting the interdisciplinary approach to this class and allowing students to collaborate through their creative and critical strengths. As a group project, each member will be responsible for creating their section of the narrative, which will be posted on your website with links to other group members’ corresponding sections on their websites. How you decide to do this is up to you, depending on how your group chooses to organize the different components or sections of the narrative. You might decide to guide readers through a linear progression of the narrative, directing them to start with one group member’s section and then onto the next section and so on, providing links to each other’s pages in the order they should be read. Or you could present something more nonlinear, each group member providing one perspective of the same story or encounter and then providing references and links to the other perspectives where appropriate.
These are broad guidelines for approaching this assignment and are meant to offer various suggestions that help prompt your own creative ideas. Once your group has finished the Conceptualization stage of the project, we encourage you to send us a brief description and outline for your approach so that we can provide feedback. Our last class meeting will be another opportunity for groups to share their ideas and receive guidance. Although this is a group assignment, you will be graded individually on your respective section of the narrative, which will also include assessment of your section effectively linking to and fitting in with the other group members’ sections. Narratives must be posted on your website and a copy of all written components submitted to the Pilot dropbox by Thursday, Dec 10 (11:59 pm).
NB: Graduate students enrolled in 4000/6000-level classes are required to submit additional grad-level work. We will be adding this component to the Encounter Narratives project in individual consultation with each grad student so that they can design and create something that fits with their disciplinary needs and interests.
*Adapted from Dr. Megan E. Brown, “Scientific facts through fiction” and Jeff VanderMeer, “The White Deer Terroir Project” (Wonderbook).
Narratives should include “documents” utilizing a variety of types of writing, such as: transcripts of interviews with people who encountered the invasive species, third-person accounts of events, poems, photographs with extended captions (similar to the eco-postcards), maps, charts, or illustrations. We encourage you to include visual components alongside written documents. Once you have created these documents, you will extrapolate further causes-and-effects, or action-reaction sequences, to create a more complicated story, interweaving multiple perspectives that come into contact with the invasive species. In exploring these options, you would weave in references to the ecology, geology, culture, and other “sedimentary layers” of place where the species dwell and the places they are seen (or not seen). You might also include “true-life” accounts of the aftermath of Fortean events—phenomena which seem to challenge the boundaries of accepted scientific knowledge—or even natural events of a magnitude to change the lives of those caught up in them.
Although you can complete parts of this project solo, the group project has three steps:
- Conceptualization— As a group, you should first agree upon the scientific hypotheses, ecological issues, themes, and setting that you will be exploring. You should also brainstorm different “encounter” pieces and discuss how you plan to organize these to avoid repetition of concepts before writing them.
- Research—Each of you will be responsible for bringing a specific type of information to the group for everyone’s use. Alternatively, each of you might do individual research for your respective section of the narrative. Whatever way you decide to divide and incorporate the research components, all sources must be clearly cited.
- Writing—Each of you will be responsible for writing particular pieces that contribute to the narrative, both encounter pieces and more complex (but short) fictions that build from the encounter documents (here fiction might mean any narrative, including poems/images/film, where useful).
Based on the class composition, each group will have at least one Biology major and one English major, reflecting the interdisciplinary approach to this class and allowing students to collaborate through their creative and critical strengths. As a group project, each member will be responsible for creating their section of the narrative, which will be posted on your website with links to other group members’ corresponding sections on their websites. How you decide to do this is up to you, depending on how your group chooses to organize the different components or sections of the narrative. You might decide to guide readers through a linear progression of the narrative, directing them to start with one group member’s section and then onto the next section and so on, providing links to each other’s pages in the order they should be read. Or you could present something more nonlinear, each group member providing one perspective of the same story or encounter and then providing references and links to the other perspectives where appropriate.
These are broad guidelines for approaching this assignment and are meant to offer various suggestions that help prompt your own creative ideas. Once your group has finished the Conceptualization stage of the project, we encourage you to send us a brief description and outline for your approach so that we can provide feedback. Our last class meeting will be another opportunity for groups to share their ideas and receive guidance. Although this is a group assignment, you will be graded individually on your respective section of the narrative, which will also include assessment of your section effectively linking to and fitting in with the other group members’ sections. Narratives must be posted on your website and a copy of all written components submitted to the Pilot dropbox by Thursday, Dec 10 (11:59 pm).
NB: Graduate students enrolled in 4000/6000-level classes are required to submit additional grad-level work. We will be adding this component to the Encounter Narratives project in individual consultation with each grad student so that they can design and create something that fits with their disciplinary needs and interests.
*Adapted from Dr. Megan E. Brown, “Scientific facts through fiction” and Jeff VanderMeer, “The White Deer Terroir Project” (Wonderbook).
