Cultivating and celebrating a sense of place.
The Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture is a leader in "place studies," an emerging academic discipline that recognizes the importance of natural, built, social and cultural environments in the formation of individual, group and community identity. When we understand the place we call home, it connects us to others and the world beyond ourselves. The Monadnock Institute seeks to help individuals and communities develop a sense of place.
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The goal of the Institute is to help individuals and communities learn about their place and renew a commitment to preserving its physical environment and culture. |
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News/Upcoming Events
Earth Day Celebration
On Wed. April 21, at 1 p.m., author-explorer Sy Montgomery will speak at the FPU Earth Day 2010 celebration. The title of her keynote address is Wildlife from the Amazon River Basin to the Great Gobi Desert: Adventures of an author-explorer. The celebration will also feature a presentation on the FPU Climate Action Plan by Sustainability Coordinator Michelle Comeau, as well as a Sustainability Fair, with information and exhibits about non-toxic plastics, organic farming, climate change, native plants, creating non-toxic living environments, and other topics. All events will be in Pierce Hall, from 11 am – 2 pm. Other Earth Week events include the ECO Club Outdoor Day on Tues. April 22, a presentation on Sustainability of Wood Biomass Fuels on Mon. April 26, 10-11 am in Fitzwater 102, and planting native perennials in the ECO Club garden on Tues. April 27 and Wed. April 28, 3-5 pm, outside Pierce Hall.
Will Steger Keynote at Annual Conference
Last year’s symposium, Addressing Climate Change—Regional Approaches, featured keynote Will Steger. Steger has led teams on some of the most significant polar expeditions in history, earning him the Lifetime Achievement award from National Geographic Magazine. Steger highlighted the effects of climate change and summarized his expedition plans for Copenhagen (site of the UN Climate Change Conference this December). A panel discussion led by Richard Ober, VP of Civic Leadership and Communications at the NH Charitable Foundation and member of the NH Climate Coalition, focussed on state and regional approaches. The symposium dovetailed with the International Day of Climate Action.
Activities of the Monadnock Institute
Anthology Projects
In 2006, the Institute released Where the Mountain Stands Alone: Stories of Place in the Monadnock Region. We are currently collecting stories in Northern New Hampshire for a second anthology volume titled Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire's North Country.
Conferences
Each fall the Institute hosts a one-day symposium. These annual conferences engage the region on the subject of place and community. Keynotes speakers in the past have included Scott Russell Sanders, John Elder, Sy Montgomery, and David W. Orr
Public Scholarship
We have facilitated dozens of story circles to provide informal opportunities for individuals who serve as repositories of community memory to come together and share their recollections. Story circles have focused on such topics as factory work, rail travel, life during the Great Depression, and the Hurricane of 1938. .Along with historic photographs, oral histories gathered from story circles provided rich materials for our Reflections Series.
Reflections: An Oral History is a five-part documentary film project produced in partnership with Keene Public Library, Cheshire TV, the Keene Sentinel, Historical Society of Cheshire County and Keene State College. We have premiered five sixty-minute documentary films (each now available for purchase on DVD).
Education Outreach
Environmental Science faculty and Monadnock Institute staff worked with FPU student Neel Patel to develop an on-line campus mapping project—an e-Tour of Rindge Campus Lands. Dr. John Harris, the Director of the Institute, regularly teaches an Environmental Studies course and an American Studies course on place, community and American culture in which students research, study and report on sites in the Monadnock region.
The Institute also partners with the Archaeological Field School, under the guidance of Professor Robert Goodby. The school is designed to collect existing information on Native American archaeological site locations in the Monadnock region, conduct surveys to locate new sites, define the boundaries of previously identified sites, and conduct intensive excavation of those sites threatened by modern development.
Paid internships and graduate assistantships for college students from Franklin Pierce or other institutions are offered to those who want to assist in our research projects. (College credit may also be available.)
The Institute annually names a Peter Sauer Place Scholar. The awarding of this scholarship allows a Franklin Pierce student to pursue a project with a place-related topic and deepen his/her engagement with place and community in the region. Download a Place scholarship application.
NewsletterThe Monadnock Institute publishes an annual newsletter that details the activities, programs and research the Institute has engaged in over the past year.
