By Jesse Wein-Gold
At Simon’s Rock, faculty members engage in scholarly pursuits that extend beyond the classroom, using their experience and expertise both for the Simon’s Rock community and their larger academic fields. Faculty wear many hats here: dedicated educators, advisors who guide students on intellectual journeys and opportunities, and distinguished scholars actively contributing and engaging with their fields of study. Here we will explore a few upcoming and recent publications that inform current teaching, highlighting thought-provoking memoirs all the way to environmental conservation studies. Their contributions span various disciplines, genres, and even continents, utilizing their academic research to offer distinct perspectives. Their intellectual journeys truly exemplify the inquisitive spirit that Rockers embody.
Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future by Jennifer Browdy ’78
Jennifer Browdy is a distinguished faculty member at Simon’s Rock, previously serving as the division head for Languages and Literature. A Simon’s Rock alum, Browdy studied English and journalism, graduating with her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude. Ten years later, she returned to the classroom with a Masters and PhD in comparative literature, as well as a friendly and welcoming demeanor. Her courses are necessities for students interested in literature, gender studies, or general social change. The classes utilize various types of writings and readings — women’s contemporary literature, journalism, “thrutopias — a narrative describing a possible path to take us from today’s challenges to a brighter future”, memoir, personal narratives — to better guide students on their path for social and environmental change. She brings over two decades of Writing and Thinking to her classes, recently teaching Sister Outsiders: Women Writers on Power and Politics, Women Write the World, and Writing the Future: Creative Thrutopian Narratives for a Just, Stable, Healthy World. She also serves as an educator in her online writers community Birth Your Truest Story, where she teaches workshops to a vibrant community of dedicated writers.
Browdy’s most recent work, Purposeful Memoir as a Quest for a Thriving Future, is the culmination of her work in the writing world as an award-winning author, veteran teacher, insightful editor, coach, and publisher. Published in 2021, her writing guide “creates a magical tapestry of inspiration and exploration, weaving her own story together with the inspiring voices and visions of more than 15 of the writer-activists she calls ‘wordwrights’ — writers who write to right the world, including such beloved mentors as Joy Harjo, Audre Lorde, Jane Goodall, Terry Tempest Williams and many more.” The guide is a recipient of much praise and awards, like the Gold Nautilus award for “books that make the world,” and the 2022 Independent Press Awards for writing and publishing.
Author of What in the World is Going on?, Penny Gill reflects, “Browdy offers us an overflowing cornucopia of prompts, images and questions, designed to take you into your great storehouse of memories.” Her latest work is a testament to her work as she calls it, “Writing to Write the World,” bringing her education, wisdom, and decades of teaching into a powerful guide for all interested in a better world.
Browdy says that she is, “kind of between books right now” as she juggles her teaching, online writers community, and various writing trips this summer. However, she is currently working on a book about, “transforming education to meet the challenges of the 21st century, from AI to climate change…” a topic she says is, “challenging, to say the least.” Browdy is working out her ideas on her current blog The Spirit of Education, where she shares her wisdom and voice on all things education and writing.
The Sacred Forests of Asia: Spiritual Ecology and the Politics of Nature Conservation by Chris Coggins
Chris Coggins is a longtime faculty member, serving as a Professor of Geography and Asian Studies for over two decades at Simon’s Rock. Beloved among students, his classes are well-known for their academic rigor and depth of study. Dr. Coggins weaves in his extensive research on rural China, political ecology, biodiversity, and globalization in his classes. Most recently, he taught Organic Farming, where students contributed to an ongoing organic community food production system, gaining a deeper understanding of colonialism, ecology, and food production. He also teaches Global Political Ecology: Resource Hegemony Resistance, and Environmentality and Modern China from the Margins: Class, Gender, Ethnicity, and the Nation State.
Outside the classroom, he has led students and faculty trips to China, many of which have involved intensive field research. He brings this research to his many works, he is the co-editor of Mapping Shangrila: Contested Landscapes of the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands (with Emily Yeh; University of Washington, 2014), co-author of The Primates of China: Biogeography and Conservation Status — Past, Present, and Future (China Forestry Publishing House, 2002), and the author of The Tiger and the Pangolin: Nature, Culture, and Conservation in China (University of Hawaii Press, 2003) which was a runner-up for the 2003 Julian Steward Award for best book in environmental/ecological anthropology.
His latest work, published in 2022, Sacred Forests of Asia: Spiritual Ecology and the Politics of Nature Conservation, is the culmination of extensive field research. His co-editor is Bixia Chen, a professor of agricultural science and fellow field researcher, along with various field research scholars including Simon’s Rock students and faculty. Drawing upon his work in the feng shui forests, workshops in Ninh Binh, and field results from ten countries in South, East, and Southeast Asia, his book serves as comparative analysis of sacred forests across those regions. Divided into three sections based on the macroregions he studies, the work also provides an introduction to biogeography, ecology, and the human impacts on forests in each region. The book places each indigenous community’s practice of sacred forest management in the greater context of indigenous studies and an “ontological turn” analysis of the relationship between humans and nature.
As Coggins reflects upon the findings and ramifications of this project, he says, “Most important of all from my perspective has been the simultaneously critical, hopeful, and responsive spirit of this phenomenal team of international scholars. I will always remember our engagements as one of the high points of my career.”