Dr. Arlene M. Plevin
| Grant Category: | Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Lecturer |
| Field of Specialization: | Writing (literature, theory, nonfiction, poetry, technical, American literature |
| Name: | Dr. Arlene M. Plevin |
| Official Address and Designation: | Professor Olympic College English Department, Humanities Division Bremerton, Washington |
| Host Institution in India: | Central University of Himachal Pradesh Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh |
| Duration of Grant: | 5 months January 2012 |
| Brief Bio: | |
| Dr. Arlene Plevin earned her Ph.D. in english from the University of Washington with focus on writing theory and ecocriticism. She received a M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. In 2002, she was awarded a Fulbright Lecturer position in Taiwan and taught eco-criticism and writing at Tamkang University in Taipei. Her essays on eco-composition, environmental justice, eco-cricitism, and the teaching of writing have been published in collections by SUNY Press, Rutgers University Press, Wayne State University Press, and others. For three years, Dr. Plevin served on the board of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE). She has been a member of "Curriculum for the Bioregion," a Washington State initiative to create writing curriculum on sustainability and was nominated for Washington State Environmental Educator of the Year in 2008. Currently, she is a tenured professor at Olympic College, where she is on the Sustainability Task Force. Her other academic work includes research on globalization for a college textbook on writing and reading, for which Dr. Plevin composed the instructor's manual. Dr. Plevin has received awards and grants for her poetry, including one from the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She also received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Arts Management. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Dr. Plevin was a writer/editor for the National Wildlife Federation and Director of Publications for the League of American Bicyclists.
Dr. Plevin's Fulbright-Nehru research "(Re) Movable Place and Community: Sustainability in Exile and the Classroom," focuses on the intersections of diaspora, displacement, and the teaching of sustainability. Dr. Plevin plans to teach in and near communities formed in exile and more long term communities in order to research how their daily practice, literature, and educational institutions reveal sustainability concepts. How does being uprooted reveal itself in practice and relationship to the land? What could this knowledge offer others seeking to live sustainably? What does local teaching and its tools (literature) suggest about sustainability? Pursuing these questions in an educational setting will further her research in identify-making—and what that means for teaching sustainability. |
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