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You are probably wondering what this 20some page document is doing on my blog. Well, Ive been doing some soul searching, and I have decided to apply to a PhD program. Crazy! Right? Well, yes! And, in order to get into the program, I needed to write a Statement of Purpose. Here are the requirements for the SoP: Union Institute & University Statement of Purpose In your statement of purpose: 1 - please explain your academic and professional interest in the Cohort PhD program, including how your interest intersects with our areas of concentration and program themes, and how your intellectual and professional or social concern are related to interdisciplinary study. 2 - What strengths do you bring to your proposed area of study? What do you hope an interdisciplinary approach will contribute to your intellectual concerns and research goals? 3 - Finally, if you are interested in our Creative Dissertation option, please briefly discuss some of your background and current creative work and how you foresee these shaping your Creative Dissertation. I figured that I would sling out a SoP in no time. However, I found that I was not being clear, and I did not really know what my purpose in seeking PhD was. Thus, this 20-page document, which includes four drafts and my final, submitted, statement of purpose, was born. Im posting it on m blog because I want people, mostly my students who find my blog, to know that, YES!, I too make use of the draft-revision process. If you are sharp, youll notice that Draft 1 and Draft 2 are two separate ideas and Draft 3 is my attempt to mash them together (which failed). Then, Draft 4 is the successful revision of Draft 3 (using color to help with organization). My lovely and super smart wife read all of these drafts and pushed my thinking. Thank you, Jessica! Well, enjoy the evolution of my SoP (or not) and wish me luck! - Aaron M. Wilson

Draft 1
Union Institute & University
The future will belong to the nature-smartthose individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of the transformative power of the natural world and who balance the virtual with the real. The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need. Richard Louv1 Richard Louv coined the term nature-deficit disorder, in his book Last Child in the Woods2 to describe an observed condition that is remedy only by getting outside and encountering wilderness. If a disorder is the product of too little exposure to the natural world, humanitys shift to an evermore virtual human created world is unsettling, because as we select to spend increasing amounts of time in these fabricated environments, wild-spaces are being developed, mined, fished, and converted into virtual-hinterlands. Soon, the remedy for an emerging disorder will be beyond our reach. We are in the middle of Richard Leakeys sixth extinction3 in which we the human species is the driving force for behind an extinction rate is that is one thousand times what scientists consider normal. As wilderness continues to dwindle surely cases of nature-deficit disorder will increase, creating a demand for and the commodification of the remaining natural world the remedy. 1 Louv, Richard. Richard Louv. richardlouv.com. 2012. Web. 21 June 2012 2 Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. New York: Algonquin Books, 2008. Print. 3 Leakey, Richard & Roger Lewin. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind. New York: Anchor Books, 1995. Print. Statement of Purpose The Thermodynamics of Creativity

 Thus, an inequity of access to the wilderness-remedy will (and is) divide along socioeconomic lines, and it is my belief (my research area of social concern) that there can be no meaningful creative output without large inputs of (access to) the elegant, diverse, and healthy wilderness.

My proposed area of study is the intersection of the creative process with fair and just access to healthy areas of wilderness. Using thermodynamics as the operative and guiding metaphor for my research, I will set out to discover the impact of too little nature on creativity. As the first and second law of thermodynamics states4 (and I summarize), 1) nothing can be created or destroyed, or put another way, output can never exceed input and must balance 2) when energy is changed, it degrades in quality, or input is always larger than output. Thus, the application of thermodynamics to creativity and wilderness is that in order to truly have productive creativity requires the input of wilderness, where as the amount of wilderness consumed (enjoyed) is greater than the creative output. Therefore, as access to enjoy wilderness is limited to those who can afford (both time and money) to engage in the natural word, so to is creativity limited, creating a creativity gap along class lines. To this project, I would bring my interdisciplinary and creative background in Rhetoric & Discourse, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies. For the past three years, I have had the opportunity to teach composition, literature, and environmental science. In order to engage students in course content, I have 4 Spoolman, Scott & G. Tyler Miller, Jr. Energy Changes Are Governed by Two Scientific Laws. Environmental Science: Problems, Concepts, and Solutions. 12th Ed. Canada: Thompson, 2008. Print. pp. 34-35

 continued to expand my knowledge of environmental issues, literary theory, and

writing methodologies to improve the learning experience for students. The cohort Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies will allow me to further combine my academic, social, and personal interest in how engagement in the natural world fosters the creative process, specifically for writers wishing to create lasting and meaningful literature. My first book, The Many Lives of Inez Wick,5 a collection of short stories, attempts to combine those two passions, as does most of my fiction. It is my plan to make use of the Creative Dissertation option to further my personal goal of producing both a fiction manuscript that exposes the injustice of wilderness access along sociological and economic lines, just as Upton Sinclairs The Jungle and Edward Abbeys The Monkey Wrench Gang did for the working condition in the meat packing industry and the over development of wildness areas, respectively; and I would use the scholarly approach to the interdisciplinary engagement of difference and creativity to produce a guide for leveling the field between those with access to the wilderness and those who do not. It is my sincere belief that everyone, regardless of difference class, race, religion, gender, generation, etc. has the right to access and enjoy wilderness. It is too easy to allow pessimism and defeatism over take us concerning issues on environmental scales, as Robert Michael Pyle writes, "But I doubt very much that the culture we know will long persist, absent truly radical changes in the way it works. We are the

5 Wilson, Aaron. The Many Lives of Inez Wick. Minneapolis: Everything Feeds Process Press, 2011. Print.

 maladaptive ape at twilight. Evolution will mock our tardy rage."6 Instead, if we begin to access and input large quantities of wilderness back into our lives, remedying our deficit, we will see an output of hope and creativity ready to face future challenges in a moral and just way.

6 Pyle, Robert Michael. "Evening Falls on the Maladaptive Ape." Moral Ground. Kathleen Dean Moore & Michael P. Nelson. Ed. San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press, 2010. p. 128. Print.

Draft 2
Union Institute & University
Statement of Purpose Several years ago, I was perusing both the literature criticism and the

environmental science shelves of my favorite used bookstore. In both sections, a slim volume, no more than a fourth-inch wide and six tall, honey-yellow in color, caught my attention. Always on the look out for texts that combine my passions for fiction, wilderness, and philosophy, I paid the $2.50 and took home George Myersons Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. After reading the first eight pages, I knew that Id happened upon the book that would change the way that I intellectually approach literature. Previously, I had taught literature and environmental science as disconnected cultural modes. However, If ecology, as cultural force, is not postindustrial, but the herald of a new industrial future (Myerson 7) where the industry is controlling nature (because we have degraded environmental systems beyond self-perpetuation) then one of the classical literary themes, Man vs. Nature, surely then is so too degraded to Man vs. Anthropogenic Nature, or more simply, Man vs. Man. The Union Institute & Universitys Cohort PhD, with a concentration in Humanities & Culture (and with secondary course work in Public Policy & Social Change), will allow for guided inquiry into the cross section of ecology and literature, where environmental science (specifically, ecology) is the new modernizing cultural force. This new modernity according to Myerson, expresses

itself differently: it is diffused, has no central work or author, and speaks from many places (7-8), just as the environmental movement has no one Martin Luther King, Jr., no Gandhi. Instead, the guiding philosophy, rules, ethics for living in this new modern world are handed down from a respected, peer-reviewed, scientific community, not so unlike how religious scholars chose which teachings to canonize and which to discard as heretical. Furthermore, if science, rather than religion, in this new modernity, is responsible for theocracy, because it possesses ultimate access (understanding) of how we should live humorously with nature (and within ecosystems), we thus return to a reliance on a select few for the interpretation of nature. However, my intellectual inquiry will not (but could) produce an ecological canon of texts to guide future critics. Rather, I wish to focus more specifically on how ecological modernism is rhetorically presented in fictional texts, by tracing historical narrative transition in theme from Man vs. Nature to Man vs. Anthropogenic Nature. To this project, I would bring my interdisciplinary and creative background in Rhetoric & Discourse, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies. For the past three years, I have had the opportunity to teach composition, literature, and environmental science. In order to engage students in course content, I have continued to expand my knowledge of environmental issues, literary theory, and writing methodologies. The Cohort Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies will allow me to deepen my academic knowledge in order to develop engaging and thought provoking courses, continuing to demonstrate to my students that knowledge-silos are artificial and unnecessary.

8 It is my plan to, in part, make use of the Creative Dissertation option to fulfill

my personal goal of publishing a novel or a dramatic script, which exemplifies ecological modernity through setting, character development, thematic conflict, and plot. Thus far, my short story publications have, in setting, character, and plot engaged in continuing the postmodern idea that Man vs. Nature, a wild and uncontrolled Nature, still exists or can be fought for and preserved. However, the scholarly components tracing the narrative shift from Man vs. Nature to Man vs. Anthropogenic Nature, unifying modernizing ecological texts, and conceptualizing scientists as modern theologians will be the major focus of my research. It is my sincere belief that fiction, and the other major genres of literature, posses the ability to record culture, the beliefs and attitudes of a specific generation, in a way that news and media cannot. The subtle shift in narrative theme over time, through the use of setting, character, and plot help to record, in a meaningful and empathetic way, what it is was like to be human at that moment in time. If these shifts are understood, they can be used as a historical record to teach and remember. My proposed field of study will expand upon (perhaps even provide) yet another literary theory (ecological modernism) with which to analyze, extract, and create meaning from literary consumption and production. Work Cited

 Myerson, George. Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. Postmodern Encounters. Duxford, Cambridge: Totem Books, 2001. Print.

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Draft 3
Union Institute & University
Statement of Purpose Several years ago, I was perusing both the literature criticism and the

environmental science shelves of my favorite used bookstore. In both sections, a slim volume, no more than a fourth-inch wide and six tall, honey-yellow in color, caught my attention. Always on the look out for texts that combine my passions for fiction, wilderness, and philosophy, I paid the $2.50 and took home George Myersons Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. After reading the first eight pages, I knew that Id happened upon the book that would change the way that I intellectually approach literature. Previously, I had taught literature and environmental science as disconnected cultural modes. However, If ecology, as cultural force, is not postindustrial, but the herald of a new industrial future (Myerson 7) where the industry is controlling nature (because we have degraded environmental systems beyond self-perpetuation) then one of the classical literary themes, Man vs. Nature, surely then is so too degraded to Man vs. Anthropogenic Nature, or more simply, Man vs. Man. And as much as I am intrigued by the possible degradation of a literary theme, I am much more concerned about what a return to modernism might mean for diversity, cultural difference, and creativity in light of the emergence of nature-deficit disorder. Richard Louv coined the term nature-deficit disorder, in his book Last Child

in the Woods to describe an observed condition that is remedy only by getting

 outside and encountering wilderness. If a disorder is the product of too little exposure to the natural world, humanitys shift to an evermore virtual human

11

created world is unsettling, because as we select to spend increasing amounts of time in these fabricated environments, wild-spaces are being developed, mined, fished, and converted into virtual-hinterlands. Soon, the remedy will be beyond reach our reach. We are in the middle of Richard Leakeys sixth extinction in which we are the driving force behind an extinction rate is that is one thousand times what scientists consider normal. As wilderness continues to dwindle surely cases of nature-deficit disorder will increase, creating a demand for and the commodification of the remaining natural world. Thus, an inequity of access to the wilderness-remedy will be (and is) divided along socioeconomic lines; and even more troubling, it is my belief that there can be no meaningful creative output without access to elegant, diverse, and healthy wilderness. It is my plan to, in part, make use of the Creative Dissertation option to fulfill my personal publishing goals, developing a poetry manuscript, a novel, or a dramatic script, which exemplifies the struggle of individuals with ecological modernity. My research will focus on this new modernity, which according to Myerson, expresses itself differently: it is diffused, has no central work or author, and speaks from many places (7-8). The environmental movement has no one text or prophet. Instead, the guiding knowledge for living in this new modern world are handed down from a respected, peer-reviewed, scientific community, not so unlike how, in the previous period to be considered modern, religious scholars chose which teachings to canonize and which to discard as heretical, limiting theology.

 Furthermore, if science, rather than religion, is responsible for a new theocracy, because it possesses the ultimate knowledge of how we should live harmoniously with nature, we thus return to a reliance on a select few for the interpretation of

12

nature. Thus, diversity, cultural difference, and creativity are threatened in the name of preserving wilderness for future generations (and perhaps, rightly so; as it is difficult to predict the needs of future cultures). Moreover, because as access to enjoy wilderness is limited to those who can afford the time, the money, the transportation, the gear to engage in the natural word, so too is diversity, cultural difference, and creativity limited. To this project, I would bring my interdisciplinary and creative background in Rhetoric & Discourse, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies, my passion for teaching and engaging first generation and non-traditional students, and a desire to conserve and open areas of wildness for all to access. I would also bring my love for learning and for the creative process. The Union Institute & Universitys Cohort PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a concentration in Humanities & Culture (and with secondary course work in Public Policy & Social Change), will allow for guided inquiry into the cross section of environmental science and literature, where environmental science is the new modernizing cultural force. A Ph.D. will allow me to both deepen my academic knowledge in order to develop engaging and thought provoking courses, continuing to demonstrate to my students that knowledge-silos are artificial and unnecessary, peruse personal publishing goals, and to engage in political and social activism,

 helping to improve access to wilderness and to spur creativity in underserved communities. Work Cited

13

Leakey, Richard & Roger Lewin. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind. New York: Anchor Books, 1995. Print. Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. New York: Algonquin Books, 2008. Print. Myerson, George. Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. Postmodern Encounters. Duxford, Cambridge: Totem Books, 2001. Print.

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Union Institute & University

Statement of Purpose 1. Introduction Several years ago, I was perusing both the literature criticism and the environmental science shelves of my favorite used bookstore. In both sections, a slim volume, no more than a fourth-inch wide and six tall, honey-yellow in color, caught my attention. Always on the look out for texts that combine my passions for fiction, wilderness, and philosophy, I paid the $2.50 and took home George Myersons Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. After reading the first eight pages, I knew that Id happened upon the book that would change the way that I intellectually approach literature. Previously, I had taught literature and environmental science as disconnected cultural modes. However, If ecology, as cultural force, is not postindustrial, but the herald of a new industrial future (Myerson 7) where the industry is controlling nature (because we have degraded environmental systems beyond self-perpetuation) then one of the classical literary themes, Man vs. Nature, surely then is so too degraded to Man vs. Anthropogenic Nature, or more simply, Man vs. Man. As much as I am intrigued by the possible degradation of a literary theme, I am much more concerned about what a return to modernism might mean for diversity, cultural difference, and creativity in light of the emergence of nature-deficit disorder.

Draft 4

 2. ND Exists (and is increasing)

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Richard Louv coined the term nature-deficit disorder, in his book Last Child in the Woods to describe an observed condition that is remedied only by getting outside and encountering wilderness. If a disorder is the product of too little exposure to the natural world, humanitys shift to an evermore virtual, human created world is unsettling. When we select to spend increasing amounts of time in these fabricated environments, we unknowingly contribute to the depletion of wild- spaces, which are being converted into support systems for our continued shift away from nature. As wilderness continues to dwindle, cases of nature-deficit disorder will increase and an inequity of access to the wilderness-remedy will be divided along socioeconomic lines. 3. ND is increasing along Socioeconomic Lines Soon, the wilderness-remedy will be beyond the reach of even the upper middle class, just as it is out of reach of the urban poor now. We must work diligently to restore wilderness (for its own sake and as remedy) for the hear-and- now and for the voiceless generations to come. When access to wilderness is limited to those who can afford the time, the money, the transportation, the gear to engage in the natural word, so too is diversity, cultural difference, and creativity limited. 4. What is the impact of ND on the Creative Process? The dilemma is then to weigh the importance of access to the wilderness- remedy for nature deficit disorder against the new modernizing force of ecology.

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Without access to wilderness diversity, cultural difference, and creativity is limited. However, in order to restore areas of wilderness, we must accept the modernizing force of ecology, which also limits diversity, cultural difference, and creativity (through knowledge handed down from the scientific community, not so unlike how, in the previous period to be considered modern, religious scholars chose which teachings to canonize and which to discard as heretical, limiting theology). This postmodern clash with a new modernism is the focus area for my research. 5. Conclusion = Creative Dissertation Option, What I bring to the project, & What a PhD will do for me It is my plan to, in part, make use of the Creative Dissertation option to fulfill

my personal publishing goals, developing a manuscript that exemplifies the struggle of individuals caught between postmodern nature-deficit disorder and the modernizing force of ecology to respect and to engage in diversity, cultural difference, and creativity. To this project, I would bring my interdisciplinary and creative background in Rhetoric & Discourse, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies, my passion for teaching and engaging first generation and non-traditional students, and a desire to conserve and open areas of wildness for all to access. I would also bring my love for learning and for the creative process. The Union Institute & Universitys Cohort PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a concentration in Humanities & Culture (and with secondary course work in Public Policy & Social Change) will allow me to both deepen my academic knowledge and

 to engage in political and social activism, helping to improve access to wilderness and to spur creativity in underserved communities. Work Cited Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. New York: Algonquin Books, 2008. Print. Myerson, George. Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. Postmodern Encounters. Duxford, Cambridge: Totem Books, 2001. Print.

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Final Draft
Union Institute & University
Statement of Purpose Several years ago, I was perusing both the literature criticism and the

environmental science shelves of my favorite used bookstore. In both sections, a slim volume, no more than a fourth-inch wide and six tall, honey-yellow in color, caught my attention. Always on the look out for texts that combine my passions for fiction, wilderness, and philosophy, I paid the $2.50 and took home George Myersons Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. After reading the first eight pages, I knew that Id happened upon the book that would change the way that I intellectually approach literature. Previously, I had taught literature and environmental science as disconnected cultural modes. However, If ecology, as cultural force, is not postindustrial, but the herald of a new industrial future (Myerson 7) where the industry is controlling nature (because we have degraded environmental systems beyond self-perpetuation) then one of the classical literary themes, Man vs. Nature, surely then is so too degraded to Man vs. Anthropogenic Nature, or more simply, Man vs. Man. As much as I am intrigued by the possible degradation of a literary theme, I am much more concerned about what a return to modernism might mean for diversity, cultural difference, and creativity in light of the emergence of nature-deficit disorder. Richard Louv coined the term nature-deficit disorder, in his book Last Child in the Woods to describe an observed condition that is remedied only by getting

 outside and encountering wilderness. If a disorder is the product of too little exposure to the natural world, humanitys shift to an evermore virtual, human

19

created world is unsettling. When we select to spend increasing amounts of time in these fabricated environments, we unknowingly contribute to the depletion of wild- spaces, which are being converted into support systems for our continued shift away from nature. As wilderness continues to dwindle, cases of nature-deficit disorder will increase and an inequity of access to the wilderness-remedy will be divided along socioeconomic lines. Soon, the wilderness-remedy will be beyond the reach of even the upper middle class, just as it is out of reach of the urban poor now, because we are in the middle of Richard Leakeys sixth extinction in which the extinction rate is one thousand times what scientists consider normal. Thus, we must work diligently to restore wilderness (for its own sake and as remedy) for the here-and-now and for the voiceless generations to come. When access to wilderness is limited to those who can afford the time, money, transportation, and equipment to engage in the natural word, so too is diversity, cultural difference, and creativity limited. The dilemma is then to weigh the importance of access to the wilderness- remedy for nature deficit disorder against the new modernizing force of ecology. Without access to wilderness diversity, cultural difference, and creativity are limited, because Its not until were , unable to check our e-mail, that were finally able to hear the quiet voices in the backs of our heads telling us about the insight. The answers have been there all along we just werent listening (Lehrer 31-2). However, in order to restore areas of wilderness, we must accept the modernizing

 force of ecology, which also limits diversity, cultural difference, and creativity. Through ecological study, knowledge is handed down from the scientific community, not so unlike how, in the previous modern period, religious scholars chose which teachings to canonize and which to discard as heretical, limiting theology. This postmodern clash with a new modernism is the focus area for my research.

20

It is my plan, in part, to make use of the Creative Dissertation option to fulfill

my personal publishing goals, developing a manuscript that exemplifies the struggle of individuals caught between postmodern nature-deficit disorder and the modernizing force of ecology to respect and to engage in diversity, cultural difference, and creativity. To this project, I would bring my interdisciplinary and creative background in Rhetoric & Discourse, Creative Writing, and Environmental Studies, my passion for teaching and engaging first generation and non-traditional students, and a desire to conserve and open areas of wildness for all to access. I would also bring my love for learning and for the creative process. The Union Institute & Universitys Cohort PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, with a concentration in Humanities & Culture (and with secondary course work in Public Policy & Social Change) will allow me to both deepen my academic knowledge and to engage in political and social activism, helping to improve access to wilderness and to spur creativity in underserved communities. Work Cited

21

Leakey, Richard & Roger Lewin. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind. New York: Anchor Books, 1995. Print. Lehrer, Jonah. Imagine: How Creativity Works. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print. Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. New York: Algonquin Books, 2008. Print. Myerson, George. Ecology and the End of Postmodernity. Postmodern Encounters. Duxford, Cambridge: Totem Books, 2001. Print.