Learning about Landscapes

Insights from a transdisciplinary course on environmental and agrarian values

Mollie Chapman

ETH Zürich

How can we help students to understand the social and cultural meanings of landscapes? How can they connect theory, practice, and field experiences to begin to read the many layers of meaning that different groups inscribe on such rich landscapes as those in the SNP+ region? In fall 2024, Mollie Chapman and Johanna Jacobi taught a master’s level course for master’s students from ETH’s Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, comprising Agricultural Sciences and Environmental Sciences. We brought together theoretical concepts from environmental values and agroecology, guided students through tools and methods from transdisciplinary research and theater of the oppressed and organized a fieldtrip and group projects to engage with different actors in the Lower Engadin and Val Müstair. We met and worked with: Pro Terra Engiadina, UNESCO Biosfera Engiadina Val Müstair, the regional game keeper and a local farmer. For each local actor, student groups created a final project with a format of their choosing. Through such creative outputs as a podcast, an interactive game for children, a communication concept and video, and a project analysis and townhall, the student groups brought together their existing interests and competencies with new material from the course and especially landscape-level learnings from the fieldtrip. They were inspired by the actors we met, by the time walking through the landscape along the Rom River revitalization project, talking with farmers and hunters at the Cattle Market in Zernez, and visiting the Swiss National Park Museum. Locally produced and prepared food added an important sensory and embodied aspect to the trip. Throughout the course we sought ways to move beyond the apparent tension between “protection and use.” To this end, we worked to expand the solution space towards seeing the many layers of meaning that a landscape holds for different people and finding ways to create space for each.