English

Rochelle Johnson

My teaching at The College of Idaho includes courses in composition, American literature, and the environmental humanities. My research, while somewhat interdisciplinary, primarily focuses on the environmental literary tradition in pre-twentieth-century America. I am most interested in the ways in which we—as a culture and as individuals—form assumptions about our connections with the physical environment. This interest leads me to explore influential figures in the environmental history of the United States, such as Henry David Thoreau and Susan Fenimore Cooper, and influential concepts or movements within our environmental imagination, such as the notion of “wilderness”, the artistic movement known as “the picturesque,” or the literary-philosophical tradition known as American Transcendentalism. More casually, I am fascinated by the relationship between landscapes and cultures, and my interests in this topic have led me to understand places such as Scotland, Costa Rica, and my home in Idaho in new ways. I am currently at work on a cultural biography of Susan Fenimore Cooper, the nineteenth-century American philanthropist and environmental writer. I enjoy gardening, walking, canoeing, birding, yoga, and camping. And reading. (Lots of reading!)

Book Publications

• Passions for Nature: Nineteenth-Century America’s Aesthetics of Alienation. University of Georgia Press, 2009.
• Essays on Nature and Landscape by Susan Fenimore Cooper. Edited and with an introduction by Rochelle Johnson and Daniel Patterson. Foreword by John Elder. University of Georgia Press, 2002.
• New Essays on Susan Fenimore Cooper's Rural Hours and Other Works. Edited and with an Introduction by Rochelle Johnson and Daniel Patterson. Foreword by Lawrence Buell. University of Georgia Press, 2001.
• Rural Hours, by Susan Fenimore Cooper. Edited and with an Introduction by Rochelle Johnson and Daniel Patterson. University of Georgia Press, 1998.
• Reading the Earth: New Directions in the Study of Literature and the Environment.  Edited and with an Introduction by Michael P. Branch, Rochelle Johnson, Daniel Patterson, and Scott Slovic.  University of Idaho Press, 1998.

With students on Eagle Beach, north of Juneau, Alaska.

Published Articles

• “Rediscovering Indian Creek: Imagining Community on the Snake River Plain.” In On Location: Rediscovering a Sense of Place, ed. Laird Christensen and Hal Crimmel. University of Nevada Press, 2008: 170-185. 
• “‘Patch-work Labors’: Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Correspondence and the Recovery of a Literary Career.” In Lives Out of Letters: Essays in American Literary Biography and Documentation, ed. Robert D. Habich. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2004: 143-168.
• "Recovering an Aesthetics of the "Real": Susan Fenimore Cooper's Rural Hours and the American Critical Tradition." ILS: Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (Fall, 2001): 24-40.
• “Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Rural Hours and the ‘Natural’ Refinement of American Culture.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 7.1 (Winter 2000): 47-77.
• “Walden, Rural Hours, and the Dilemma of Representation.” In Thoreau’s Sense of Place: Essays in American Environmental Writing, ed. Richard J. Schneider. Ames, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2000. 179-93. Reprinted in Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 129, Gale Publishing, 2003: 38-45.

Recent Conference Presentations and Invited Academic Lectures

• “Thoreau’s ‘Open Air’ Aesthetics of ‘Inexpressible Meaning’.”  Thoreau Society Panel, titled “Nature Aesthetics for a New Curriculum,” at the A.L.A. (American Literature Association) 29th Annual Conference, May 21-24, 2009, Boston, Massachusetts.
• “America’s Pursuit of ‘Taste’ through Landscape: The Aesthetics of Association.” A.S.E.H. (American Society for Environmental History) Annual Conference, February 25-March 1, 2009, Tallahassee, Florida.  Presented in absentia.
• “Natural History Writing in the Classroom: The Making of Rediscovering Indian Creek.”  An NEH-sponsored Idaho Humanities Council Summer Institute, “ ‘A Word for Nature’: Exploring Environmental Literature.”  July 18, 2008. 
• “The Historical Importance of Public Lands.”  5th Annual Quiet Commotion Summit, a conference for government and non-profit organizations organized by The Wilderness Society, American Hiking Society, and The Idaho Conservation League, April 30-May 2, 2008, Boise, Idaho.
• “Carbon Offsets and the Environmental Humanities.”  Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce University, October 25-26, Rindge, New Hampshire.  Invited consultant and lecturer.
• “Rediscovering Indian Creek: Imagining Community on the Snake River Plain.” W.L.A. (Western Literature Association) Annual Conference, October 17-21, 2007, Tacoma, Washington.
• “Going Green, Staying Centered: Managing the Disciplinary Divide.” A.S.L.E. (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) Biennial Conference, June 12-16, 2007, Spartanburg, South Carolina. “People Build Programs: A Roundtable on Cultivating Green Studies” panel.
• “The Landscape of Liberal Arts Colleges.” A.S.L.E. (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) Biennial Conference, June 12-16, 2007, Spartanburg, South Carolina. “Navigating New Terrain: Graduate Students and the Changing Face of the Profession” panel.
• “The American Renaissance Contexts for Susan Fenimore Cooper.” Susan Fenimore Cooper panel, titled, “Susan Fenimore Cooper and the American Renaissance.” S.S.A.W.W. (Society for the Study of American Women Writers) Third International Conference, Philadelphia, November 8-11, 2006.
• “Teaching Sustainability through Story: The Role of Writing Local Natural History.” AASHE (Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) Conference, Tempe, Arizona, October 4-6, 2006.
• “Thoreau, Susan Fenimore Cooper, and the Quest to Fasten Words to Visible Things." Thoreau Society Panel, titled “Speaking Nature without Metaphor: Words and Things in the American Renaissance,” at the A.L.A. (American Literature Association) Annual Meeting, San Francisco, May 25-28, 2006.
• “Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Historicized Picturesque.” “Responding to the Natural World: A Conference in Honor of John Knott,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. April 7-8, 2006.
• “Words that Paint Pictures: Susan Fenimore Cooper and the Natural World.” S.U.N.Y. Delhi College of Technology, Delhi, New York. March 6, 2006.
• “Toward a Humanitarian Landscape: Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Politics of Environmental and Social Justice.” A.S.L.E. (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) Biennial Conference, June 21-25, 2005, Eugene, Oregon. “Living with Diversity: Nineteenth-Century American Landscapes” panel.

Recent Lectures for the Public

• “Developing a Sense of Place,” an invited lecture as part of the Sawtooth Forum and Lecture Series.  Sponsored by The Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association.  The Stanley Museum, July 17, 2009.
• “On Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.”  Remarks and discussion-leading on the film as part of the Idaho Public Television’s Community Connections Project of the Independent Television Service.  March 24, 2009.
• “Thoughts on Our Intentions and the Study of History.” Closing Plenary Address for “History Day,” a state-wide history competition sponsored by the Idaho State Historical Society. April 13, 2007.
• “Our Complex Passion for Nature: The Historical Roots of America’s Environmental Attitudes.” Morrison Knudsen Nature Center, Boise. March 8, 2007.
• “Students Can Change Communities: On the Making of Rediscovering Indian Creek.” Caldwell High School, Caldwell, Idaho. December 18, 2006.
• “Teaching Ecology through Collaborative Natural History Writing: Rediscovering Indian Creek.” For the Snake River Alliance, Boise, Idaho. April 1, 2006.

Recent Honors and Awards

• May, 2007 Recipient of a Women’s and Children’s Alliance (WCA) Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award (Boise, Idaho)
• February, 2007 Nominee, Outstanding Idaho Environmental Educator Award, Idaho
• Environmental Education Association (IdEAA)
• November, 2005 Idaho Humanities Council Research Grant
• June, 2001 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Fellowship

Recent Leadership Positions

• Vice President (2007), President (2008), and Immediate Past President (2009), Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
• Director, Heritage Scholars Program at The College of Idaho, 2004-05 & 2006 - present
• Chair, English Department at The College of Idaho, 2007- present
• Publications Committee Member, Henry David Thoreau Society, 2006-2007
• Advisory Board Member, James Fenimore Cooper Society, 2006-2007
• Advisory Board Member, S.S.A.W.W. (Society for the Study of American Women Writers), 2004-2006
• Professional Organization Liaison, A.S.L.E. (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment), 2000-2007
• Editorial Board Member, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, edited by Scott Slovic at the Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities, University of Nevada, Reno.
• Graduate Faculty in English, Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College (at the University of Alaska-Southeast Campus, Juneau, Alaska), 2004 & 2005