Student Project: Annotated Keywords for Ecomedia Studies

In our ongoing effort to highlight the work of undergraduate students, this post features the work of students  in my English 381: Ecocinema course taught this past spring quarter at the University of Oregon.

For this assignment, I asked students to create Annotated Keywords that would define and apply key terms in ecomedia studies. By creating these visual platforms, students engaged not just in linguistic learning but as much in visual learning.  There are some editing errors here and there and the citations could have been clearer in some cases but I think these representative examples present a good start toward combining a traditional annotated bibliography with visual representation and analysis. These selections represent close readings of the keywords and some skill in graphic design.

I was inspired by Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton’s Lexicon of Sustainability, Raymond Williams’ classic Keywords for cultural studies, and a forthcoming project co-edited by Joni Adamson, William Gleason, and David N. Pellow, entitled Keywords for Environmental Studies to be published by NYU Press. Given the time limit of about two weeks for students to complete this project while keeping up with course readings and other assignments, I think the results are impressive.  I hope these examples will inspire fresh discussion and creative approaches to teaching ecocinema and ecomedia.

My thanks to all of the students involved who have given me permission to share their work –

Vanessa Kam_ENG381_ANNOTATED Keywords FINAL

Chelsea McMahan_ENG 381_Keywords

Brandon Rains_ENG381_ANNOTATED KEYWORDS

Aaron Rouza_ENG 381_Annotated Keywords

Trenton Jean_ENG 381_Annotated Keywords