{"id":11823,"date":"2024-01-25T15:08:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T20:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2024-03-07T14:58:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T19:58:17","slug":"river-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/magazine\/issues\/spring-2024\/river-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"River Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Students in the honors course River Stories visited äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ geoscientist Soni Pradhanang’s river simulation table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Heather Johnson’s students examine rivers through history, culture, literature, and ecology. And they gain firsthand knowledge of rivers by going straight to the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students in Heather Johnson\u2019s honors class, River Stories (HPR 412), learn about rivers not only from books, but by paddling them in kayaks and taking riverboat tours. They walk along riverbanks and learn from conservationists, scientists, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons From the Field<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Field experiences are essential. \u201cWe need to be on the river, to feel its tidal pulls and touch the cold water, so that we are not learning about the idea<\/em> of a river but about a tangible life force,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cOne of the best moments last semester was on a kayak trip to the Pettaquamscutt River (also known as Narrow River). The sun was setting, and everyone grew quiet. Being on the river fosters that kind of connection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson takes her students to Rhode Island sites to experience physical and visceral connections to rivers, but the course also provides national and global perspectives. Students also learn from guest teachers like Lor\u00e9n Spears \u201989, Hon. \u201917, director of the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, R.I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn documentaries about U.S. rivers, students learn about the impacts of 20th-century power projects,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cAnd on guided walks with Lor\u00e9n Spears, they learn about the significance of rivers for the Wampanoag and Narragansett, from pre-colonization to the present day. Her stories of respecting all life in rivers contrasts with industrial-age narratives of \u2018improvement\u2019 with their casual disregard for the cultural histories and environmental well-being of rivers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivers Hold Memories<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea that rivers have memory guides this course,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cWe read a piece (\u201cMississippi Drift,\u201d see the self-study guide, right) about the Mississippi River and the tension between romant-icizing rivers and seeking to know the reality, which is not always a pastoral, pretty scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToni Morrison wrote about the memories held in rivers, and we see this in stories of towns flooded by dam projects across the U.S.,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cI visited just such a man-made lake in California this past summer: A power company diverted a river to flood the land, displacing the Maidu inhabitants. The lake today may, at first glance, seem appealing as a place for recreational boating, but its depths tell a story of loss and injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Active Learning<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this class,\u201d says Johnson, \u201cI don\u2019t lecture. We walk, kayak, read, and discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students in Johnson\u2019s fall 2023 class even became activists, placing more than 3,000 plastic bottles on the Kingston Campus Quad to call attention to the impact of plastics on rivers as part of a petition drive to support a Rhode Island bottle bill. The students collected more than 500 signatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Professor Heather Johnson on the Quad among a display of plastic bottles placed by students in her River Stories course. They collected signatures for a Rhode Island bottle bill; the bottles helped draw attention to the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this class, I don\u2019t lecture. \nWe walk, kayak, read, and discuss.\u201d<\/blockquote>Professor Heather Johnson<\/cite><\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Takeaway<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis course helped me improve my creative writing,\u201d says Livi Donatelli \u201923, a neuroscience and psychology major. \u201cI never had a class that had such interesting excursions. We kayaked and walked the Wood and Saugatucket rivers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

English major Jack Wholey \u201923 says, \u201cThe class was imaginative and tied together effectively. On the first day of class, Professor Johnson said, \u2018When you drive over a bridge spanning a river, don\u2019t just notice the glint of light reflected off the water. Take time to learn about the river\u2019s culture, its history, the culture of the people who have lived along its banks, its ecology, and stories.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Dave Lavallee \u201979, M.P.A. \u201987<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos: Nora Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rivers: A Self-Study Guide<\/span><\/h1>\n

Read<\/p>\n