About Lived Experience Projects

Each Spring semester students in the K-State Women’s Studies Program course, Women and Environmentalism, engage in an experiential learning project to help them understand the philosophical and historical intersections among women, nature, and environmentalist activism and how all forms of oppression and domination—gender, race/ethnicity, economic, and environmental—are interconnected.

For the major project for this class the students may choose from 3 options:

Walking Your Talk, Here you will live an environmental experiment for 1-2 month.  Examples: buy nothing (except food, medicine, housing), daily nature meditations, days of silence (1 day a week no media, phone, music, etc); cut your carbon footprint in half Example Title: From Carnivore to Vegan in 40 daysBlog /Week 1: Since the environmental costs of CAFO meat eating is so much higher than a diet based on plants, I will spend the next 40 days weaning myself off a carnivorous diet… Blog /Week 2: No more meat Blog /Week 3: No more animal food Blog /Week 4: No more animals in my clothing/toiletries Blog /Week 5: A totally vegan lifestyle Final Reflection Blog What One Person Can Do. This assignment has you exploring what you can do about a particular environmental topic.  You must examine your topic from at least 4 of the following ways:  personal, political, economic, knowledge, artistic, community, spiritual, and activist, combination.   Examples: trying to stop the use of plastic shopping bags, working towards ending factory farming, getting  kids to eat fresh, organic vegetables Example: Title:  Manhattan Has Too Much Trash! Blog 1: The litter in Manhattan is out of control.  The environmental cost of litter is …. Blog/Week 2:  Personal Change. Everyday I will pick up trash I see , modeling behavior…. Blog /Week 3:  Knowledge. I am learning about the recycling options in Manhattan… Blog /Week 4:  Political. I spoke at a City Council Meeting about the problems of litter… Blog /Week 5:  Activist.  I have decided to develop a campaign to end litter in this city… Blog/ Week 6: Combination. I have created a website about trash issues and my campaign to end litter.  I am speaking at the next City Council Meeting… Final Reflection Blog Informed Citizenship. For this assignment you will spend 2 months doing self directed research on an approved topic to develop the knowledge needed to make an informed opinion on a subject.  Areas to explore must include science and politics and at least 3 from cultural, spiritual, journalistic, economic, and artistic viewpoints.  Topic examples: global climate change, green energy, and organic farming. Example: Title: What is happening to beehives? Blog /Week 1: Recently there has been an increase in bee hives collapses in the US… Blog/ Week 2:  Journalistic. Exploring media interpretation Blog/ Week 3: Science. The scientific studies on bee deaths Blog/ Week 4: Science. The scientific studies on bee deaths Blog/ Week 5: Economic. How this is effecting food production Blog/ Week 6: Artistic. Documentary and fictional reaction Blog/ Week 7: Political. What the US government is doing Blog/ Week 8: Political. What is the Canadian government is doing Final Reflection Blog