The syllabus identifies the novel as Chicana literature.
One of the “hits” of the exercise is Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes, a winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. Students chose one and then joined a presentation and discussion team. In updating a mid-level general education course in “Environment and Society,” I broke my habit of requiring everyone to read the same books and provided a selection of contemporary environmental fiction from diverse authors, including African American and non-US-based writers. The syllabi have infused case histories reflecting their backgrounds and social contexts that might interest them - while clinging to my old favorites in literature. Still, as my classes have become more ethnically diverse and incorporated more international and first-generation students, I have been regularly expanding the scientific and policy cases we cover. Perhaps the art side of my brain has been in the slow lane. However, I only recently began experimenting with environmental literature from outside the western, white-dominated mainstream. The environmental ethics components of these courses engage a range of eco-justice issues, such as chemical dumping or releases adjoining minority neighborhoods.
When teaching a writing-intensive class, I might assign Anne Dillard or Wendall Berry to establish a further springboard for discussing Christian green spirituality. I often looked to the deep past and included Scriptural selections or Irish monastic poetry to provide a Christian foundation. In the past, when I was assigning supplemental readings for environmental studies courses, I tended to stick to titles, like A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, that are classics of modern environmental writing.
One of the problems Christians face in engaging today’s environmental challenges is appreciating the depth and breadth of our heritage.
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