Explores cross-cultural similarities in imagining “place,” from the Indigenous Australian Dreamtime to the Irish Dindshenchas and Native American place-naming. This course examines patterns in how people “story” their local environments around the globe, designating some landscapes, mountains, trees, and waterholes as the dwellings of supernatural powers and others as dangerous thresholds to good and bad “other worlds.” Students examine how beliefs about place foster specific behaviors and understandings of identity, kinship, and religion, and how cross-cultural similarities in these understandings might offer lessons in socio-ecological resilience and environmental stewardship as the human population approaches 8 billion. Field trips, plenary lectures, and capstone projects allow students to explore the region, engage in the practice of place-making, and synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Open only to new first-year students.