research overview
- I hope that some of my research can unearth a sort of dialectic between ecocomposition and travel studies, particularly through an examination of the veil through which first-world travelers tend to gaze upon third-world cultures. I've begun research in the fields (no pun intended) of garden rhetorics and the attendant rhetorics of social justice. A related, and particularly fecund, field that I wish to investigate is the range where the rhetoric of geography/ecology and travel studies will intersect: creative nonfiction. As ever, I'm very taken with creative writing, in varied form: prose poem, haiku, creative nonfiction, fiction. Finally, and most importantly, I hope to continue to investigate ways to incorporate emotional intelligence/secular mindfulness practice in the curriculum as listed here as well as in university-level models - in particular, I'm studying interdisciplinary approaches to mindfulness and emotional agility, leaning to deep observation of and writing about the visual arts (from painting to land art).