Arkansas NCTA presents "Ecology and Energy: Teaching Asia and the Environment," a virtual workshop for teachers of grades 6 - 12 taking place on February 17, 2025. This workshop equips educators with digital tools and strategies to integrate Korea into their classroom, exploring its rich political, social, and historical contexts behind the global influence of Korean popular culture. Register here!
This interactive virtual workshop brings together scholars of philosophy, literature, geography, and anthropology to explore how artists and activists in China and Japan have understood their environment, lived within it, and sought to address human impacts on the physical landscape. The workshop provides world geography teachers in middle and high school with concrete strategies and resources for engaging environmental issues in Asia through anime, carbon data, tai qi, and Asian futurism. Registered Grade 9 - 12 teachers will receive a copy of celebrated director Hayao Miyazaki’s ecological masterpiece Princess Mononoke as well as a 2024 Freeman Award-winning book.
When: Monday, February 17, 2025; 12:30 - 3:30pm
Format: Virtual via Zoom
SCHEDULE
12:30 - 1:30pm: Engaging Energy in Asia
"Carbon Emissions and Climate Change in East Asia"
With Prof. Ling Zhang, Department of Geography
Through identifying the sources of carbon emission from various economic sectors and clarifying the relationship between carbon emission and climate change by the case study of East Asia, this workshop focuses on how teachers can use the concept of carbon emission to raise students’ awareness about climate change and environmental protection. Topics include greenhouse effect, global warming, carbon footprint mitigation, and discussion questions and activities that can be used in the classroom.
"Pollution and Protest: Films for Engaging Environmental Activism in China"
With Dr. Zach Smith, Department of History
This workshop explores contemporary environmental activism in China, challenging the misconception that protest movements are absent in the People's Republic. Through an overview of key environmental movements and a selection of impactful short films, the session provides educators with resources for discussing civic engagement and environmental justice in modern China.
1:30 - 1:40: BREAK
1:40 - 2:40: New Ecological Narratives of Asia
"Alternative Visions of Japanese Culture and Ecology in Princess Mononoke"
With Prof. Tim Strikwerda, School of Language and Literature
This workshop focuses on how teachers can use Hayao Miyazaki’s acclaimed anime masterpiece Princess Mononoke to think critically about Japanese approaches to the environment in world history, literature, and geography courses. Topics include eco-catastrophe, the representation of indigenous minorities, and Miyazaki’s perennial critique of Japanese militarism, as well as a list of discussion questions for instructors to use in their classes.
"Imagining Community: Considerations of Gender in Ecological and Asian Futurist Frameworks"
With Prof. Taine Duncan, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
How do we see the world? Do we see it from the perspective of an individual or do we understand it in terms of community? Do we feel trapped in the current environmental crisis, or do we see our responsibilities to the crisis and opportunities for envisioning better futures? In this discussion I address the frameworks of feminist ecology and Asian Futurism. These frameworks help us to imagine other ways of seeing the relation between community and flourishing. In my presentation, I explore these resonant concepts of community and flourishing, and how they can be used in classroom teaching about ecology, philosophy, literature, and social theory.
2:40 - 2:50: Break
2:50 - 3:30: Workshop and Reflection, facilitated by Dr. Zach Smith