Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Reclaiming Oktoberfest: Celebrating Sustainability Instead of Consumerism
By Elmar Ujszaszi-Müller Every year in late September, the atmosphere in Munich becomes thicker when Oktoberfest takes place. The intense odors of roasted almonds and grilled chicken mingle with those of specially brewed lager and the sweat of thousands of people roaming the festival grounds.
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Starhawk, Henry Vaughan, and the Environmental Imagination
By Zane Johnson Times of widespread crisis often challenge conventional ways of being in and seeing the world. Sometimes these challenges take on a millenarian character, heralding the end of an epoch or the dawning of a new age.
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Opplevelser I Stavanger
(Adventures in Stavanger) In this mini series you can read about the experiences of Johanna Felber and Malin Klinski, candidates of the RCC’s Environmental Studies Certificate program, during an exchange program with the University of Stavanger in Norway. If you want to find out more about life in the land of the midnight sun, trolls, and vikings, you are in the right place… By…
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Storytelling and Storyboarding Science: The Global Science Film Festival
by Malin Klinski As a student of the Rachel Carson Center’s Environmental Studies Certificate Program, I had the chance to go to Zurich from 15–18 November 2019 to attend the second Global Science Film Festival (which ran in parallel in Bern). This excursion was part of the seminar “Storytelling and Storyboarding Science” by film festival…
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Contested Ecologies: Munich
By: Clemens Hufeld Munich is a beautiful city that has much to offer. It has the Oktoberfest, one of the world’s largest urban fairs, surfers in the middle of the city, beautiful landscapes in its vicinity, and a long tradition of urban life. The city is shrouded in such a wonderful air of beauty that…
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The Making of a Mountain: Constructing the Untersberg Mountain as a Contemporary Spiritual Destination
By: Robert Baumgartner While waiting for the train back to Munich at the end of our place-based workshop in Berchtesgaden National Park last summer, I browsed the local station bookshop’s section on local tourism, culture, and folklore. With the National Park becoming an ever more popular tourist destination, it was not surprising to see tables filled…
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Memorializing the Landscape: Walking the Stanza Stones Trail
By: Eveline de Smalen Preparing to take my sister out on a walk in the Yorkshire countryside, I looked at a map. The map, as it often is in these days of technological wonder, was an app that I have on my phone. I am a literary critic, not a cartographer. I don’t know very…
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Stimmenspur: Sound Trails in the English Garden
By Vera Kovacs Have you ever burst into tears when a song came on the radio that reminded you of a loved one lost? Have you ever avoided going a certain route or into a room in your house where you once had a bad experience? Have you ever mimicked the hand gestures of a…
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The History of Munich’s Waste Management
This post by Christian Schnurr, a student of the RCC-LMU Environmental Studies Certificate Program, stems from his research conducted as part of the exhibition project “Ecopolis: Understanding and Imagining Munich’s Environments.” Unless otherwise indicated, images are courtesy of AWM. Source: AWM Festschrift. An opera about rubbish disposal? Die Stadt, composed by Nélida Béjar and directed by Björn…
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Capturing the Environment
“Visualizing the Environment: Environmental Photography Workshop” By Sasha L. Gora This very blog is framed around the idea of seeing the woods, but what about photographing the woods? The common expression,“Can’t see the wood (or forest) for the trees,” communicates the sense of not being able to visualize the big picture. One is simply too…
seeingthewoods.org 