Inhabiting sounds: soundscape ecology in a first-year seminar

This chapter articulates the significance of introducing soundscape ecology practices in a first-year seminar on the environmental humanities I taught at Dartmouth College in the Spring 2019. It describes the logistical, pedagogical, and practical steps I took to lead my students to experience both the ecological importance of sounds in the physical environment and the difficulty of translating nonhuman sounds into a written text. My class paired up with the local non-profit land conservation organization Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT) for a series of field activities, including the recording of the soundscape of a nearby natural area. My students had to listen to and record the soundscape of different parts of the natural area under examination. I then asked them to reflect upon both the phenomenology of their experience; the ecological value of the specific soundscape bits they recorded; and how our literate culture can engage with as well as properly dwell within the acoustic semiosis occurring in the nonhuman world. Experiencing the soundscape of a physical environment outside the classroom was a transformative event capable of helping students to see the world—and therefore their own dwelling in the world—in a more attentive and responsible way.