Reading the Book of Nature

productions within the context of Chicago's environmental history and future sustainability; and
builds upon and extends current ecocritical scholarship by synthesizing environmental history,
science and natural history, and literary studies. The larger project of which the Watts study is a
part -- namely, Mapping the Urban Wilderness -- integrates what has been up to now separate
areas of Chicago Studies, while at the same time pushing the work of ecocriticism in an exciting
and fruitful new direction.
Research Design and Analytical Methods
As an interdisciplinary-minded literary critic, my research approach is unabashedly
qualitative. I emphasize the close reading and analysis of individual texts, their relationships with
one another, and their place in the broad contexts of popular scientific discourse, nature writing,
environmental history, and sustainability. I complement this textual approach by firmly
grounding my analyses in the appropriate historical context and by situating my interpretations
within the relevant secondary literature. My work differs from traditional literary scholarship is
its focus upon non-canonical texts and authors as well as its use of insights and theories from
fields such as ecocriticism, the cultural study of science, and environmental history.
In this project, I strive to bring an "ecologically critical" -- or ecocritical -- perspective to
bear upon the life, literary/artistic achievements, public education efforts, and conservation work
of May Watts. Ecocriticism is a specific approach within the broad area of humanistic
interpretation, an environmentally-informed method of analyzing texts, artworks, and other
cultural products. As ecocritic Cheryl Glotfelty explains in her essay, "What Is Ecocriticism?":
Ecocritics and theorists ask questions like the following: How is nature
represented in this sonnet? What role does the physical setting play in the plot of
this novel? Are the values expressed in this play consistent with ecological
wisdom? How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? How
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