resource type
Review: Dispossessing the Wilderness
A review of Mark David Spence’s, “Dispossessing the Wilderness,” which provides a history of how Yosemite, Glacier, and Yellowstone National Parks were predicated upon the forcible removal of indigenous people from their land through physical violence, broken treaties, and unequal partnerships. Spence’s work is recommended reading for anyone who wants to understand the American wilderness through an important lens.
Read here.
How to tell someone they sound racist
Jay Smooth instructs on how to have a productive conversation with someone who just may have said something racist. While he focuses on race here, his tactics apply to addressing any difficult or sticky conversation, especially around identity, power, and oppression.
Watch here.
Violence against women—it’s a men’s issue
Jackson Katz discusses how violence against women gets labeled as a ‘women’s issue,’ but it is in fact a men’s issue.
Watch here.
Black Girl Dangerous Podcast
Mia McKenzie of Black Girl Dangerous invites various guests to talk about current events, pop culture, politics, and much more from a radical feminist of color perspective.
Listen here.
The Context of Successful Navigation of Gendered Norms in Outdoor Adventure Recreation
In a case study of outdoor adventure athletes, this dissertation finds that women athletes navigate fear, lack of confidence, and gender relations issues using social support, resiliency strategies, and focusing on their unwavering passion for the outdoors. If you don’t want to read the entire 200+ pages, focus on the takeaways. The author recommends outdoor programs focus on specific skill-building among women participants surrounding confidence, self-awareness, and fear/risk management, providing social networking opportunities for women with like-minded colleagues, providing more exposure to the outdoors beyond just technical skill building, and to consider single-gender environments (which can be more supportive for some women).
Read here.
What Riding My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege
Yet another blog post analogizing white privilege to something more accessible in order to drive home the concept. Though we are not fans of glossing over White Privilege with superficial analogies and metaphors, we realize there is real value for some folks in reading articles that talk about this challenging concept in a way that resonates with them. For some, this could be the aha! piece.
Read here.
Intersectionality: a fun guide
Miraim Dobson’s comic provides an explanation of intersectionality through a comic.
View here.
The Confidence Gap
A growing body of research shows that women are less “confident” than men: they are less likely to apply for jobs for which they are qualified, they are less likely to negotiate salaries, and they are less likely to seek promotions (among other things). The article concludes with some recommendations to close what the authors have coined “the confidence gap.”
Read here.
“Why don’t black people go camping…?” Critical Whiteness Studies in Environmental Education
Breeze discusses the racialization of the wilderness and its impact on perceptions of wilderness within black communities through the term and “racialized ecological identity.” The article also challenges the concept of colorblindness and ultimately, how to transform environmental education to be more culturally responsive to different ecological identities.
Read here. (July 17, 2009)
Pathways Issue 15: Social Differences, Justice, and Outdoor Education
This issue of Pathways, the Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, contains five articles that cover the range from cultural appropriation of indigenous artifacts by summer camps (i.e., the totem pole phenomenon), to designing adventure for the differently abled, to the myth of an untouched and pristine “wilderness.” Every article is short, interesting, and non-academic, and would be great field reads during a trip.
DownloadGreen 2.0: The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations
This 2014 report has been the impetus for the nationwide effort in the environmental sector to dedicate resources to diversity and inclusion. In this report, Dr. Dorceta Taylor studied 191 conservation and preservation organizations, 74 government environmental agencies, 28 environmental grant-making foundations, and 21 environmental professionals. The report concludes that there is a significant gender and ethnic gap in the ranks of environmental organizations, a gap that needs to be addressed if the movement is to remain relevant in a nation with rapidly shifting demographics.
Read here.
The green insider’s club
This executive summary on the findings of Green 2.0, Dorceta Taylor’s initial report on the lack of diversity in the environmental movement and recommendations for making change, recommends that organizations focus on tracking and transparency, accountability, and allocating more resources. The report finds that foundations and the Obama administration are leading the way on diversity efforts, but that the nonprofit sector is lagging behind. Among the problems are unconscious bias, discrimination, and insular recruiting.
Read here.