SLS-France Fall 2023 Week 2 

in Photos + "Ecocritical Threes"

September 02, 2023

Brigitte Stepanov

Building Civic Community 

Welcome to the second installment of "Ecocritical Threes," a brief three-point summary of the week's theory (in-class discussions) and practice (community engagement and experimental learning). The "Ecocritical Threes" series shares questions posed, reflections had, and anecdotes told, providing a glimpse into the interdisciplinary and intersectional thinking with which we are approaching climate change and climate justice this semester. 

This week, we visited FJO (Foyer des jeunes ouvriers) and l'Association Carrefour, which both work to help house members of the messin community. 

1. We started off by asking three interrelated questions: 1. What is community? 2. What is relationship between an individual and the collective of which they are a part? 3. Is a collective a community? 

2. We learned about the ins and outs of FJO's foodbank, l'Association Carrefour's art space, and the sports programming offered by both organizations. We also discussed the role of local, regional, and national politics on organizations such as these.

3. We discussed identity, belonging, and legacies of colonialism, while reflecting on existence in multilingual and translingual settings.