ABSTRACT
This chapter subjects as straightforward as it might initially appear, must be complicated by several preliminary considerations. Academic subjects are complex and dynamic. To teach and to learn in any complex field always means to find approaches that suit both one's own contexts, as a student and as an instructor, and one's research interests. Environmental concerns, in this sense, are very much part of the 'ecology of knowledge' characteristic of the learning and teaching of American Studies. American Studies' broad understanding of what can be considered a text worth studying is borrowed from Cultural Studies. From its inception, in fact, American Studies have fervently transgressed disciplinary boundaries. American Studies, in this sense, mirror at the level of disciplinary self-reflection what we have identified as important for you and indeed: us all as students engaged in a productive learning and teaching process.
