The School of Ecosexual Love – A Work in Progress – Welcome!

The School of Ecosexual Love – A Work in Progress – Welcome!

The School of Ecosexual Love is a work-on-progress to which you’re invited to contribute. Are you wanting to expand and evolve your arts of love? This is a good place for you!

Welcome to our tentative description:

The School of Ecosexual Love is a school of love where life on Gaia in all its forms is the teacher, a teacher that inspires others to practice the arts of love in ways that are natural, ecological, sexy, amorous, diverse, and brave in envisioning new alignments between the health of the planet and the health of the world.

The School of Ecosexual Love offers a variety of educational journeys, including courses, retreats, workshops, and more. All journeys are opportunities for alchemic transformation and for evolution toward more symbiotic ways of being and relating. All offerings include practices that help participants maintain a positive energy field within and around themselves, thus enhancing the alignment of health and happiness in one’s personal and one’s ecosystemic realms.

Educational modalities include online, hybrid, and presential.

Existing courses in the curriculum now include:

—The Resilience of Love is an online journey that has been activated at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and is currently active, with two parallel editions and weekly appointments, Wednesdays 9-11 PM Central EU time in Italian, and Thursday 9-11 PM Central EU time in English.

—The Alchemy of Ecosexual Love is a presential introductory weekend that’s held on a yearly basis at Suncave Garden, a naturist retreat center in Cerveteri, about 30 kilometers from Rome, Italy. This retreat is now scheduled for August 28-30, 2020.

—The Symbiosis of Ecosexual Love is a presential advanced course, which will be launched soon, and could have a beta edition at Suncave Garden starting on August 31, 2020.

The following course could become part of this curriculum:

—The Humanities and Love, Part # 2, from 1500 to the present is a hybrid course that, in its original editions, was taught part presential and part online at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. It consists of nine one-hour lectures in English on world and planetary history, available online on the Serena Anderlini You Tube channel, and of a series of readings, visual presentations, and tests, available online in the LMS portal called Canvas by Instructure.

As a hybrid, the course was active until 2017, and it could be reactivated as an entirely online course. It could be of interest to universities and other institutions of higher learning open to teaching Western Civilization courses organized around the theme of love.

The School of Ecosexual Love operates under the aegis of the non-profit 3WayKiss. We are evolving and in particular, we are in the process of:

–Developing a full-fledged Mission and Vision for this school
–Connecting the school with other similar schools, academies, and universities
–Presenting its offerings more widely in venues open to its approaches
–Activating more courses
–Developing certificates and awards
–Recruiting and retaining interested collaborators, participants, and assistants
–Connecting w/ possible donors and funders

How does any and all of these areas inspire you? In what ways do you think you can participate and contribute? Please get in touch. We’d love to hear. Thank you!

Do you have friends who would appreciate this opportunity? Don’t hesitate to spread the news! Share this post please. Thanks!

For more information and for scheduling, contact Dr. SerenaGaia asfo

dr.serenagaia@gmail.com, serena.anderlini@gmail.com, + 39 3294779406 (whatsapp), Serena Anderlini of Puerto Rico, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Messenger, @serenagaia on Twitter. Thank you!

aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Erstwhile Professor of Humanities and Cinema at UPRM
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium
Author of Multiple Books
Contact: serena.anderlini@gmail.com, + 39 329 477 9406.
Academia.edu Profile
LinkedIn Profile
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

 

Reinventions – Falling in Love with the Humanities? Si, se Puede! When Basic Education Goes Digital

–Dear Fellow Earthlings–

While teaching a two-semester basic course in the Humanities in the past 10 + years, I’ve evolved a narrative about history that focuses on the Earth and all its people, and a series of readings that deploy the diverse and imaginative ways that humans have practiced the arts of love across time and space.

I feel the multiple crises we face today require that this course go digital.  That way everyone can take it from all over the planet.  I believe that would be a great gift.  It would empower people to make love the ecology of their lives in ways they feel inspired to.

Crises result in successful reinventions when there is openness, trust, collaboration.

–These are difficult to generate in times of crisis, and yet that’s when they are really necessary!

–A very wide support is necessary to evolve.

In this context, I am happy to accept the invitation from UPR Carolina, a small campus in the UPR system, to present my project on March 14.  We start at 11 am in the Teatro:

“Falling in Love with the Humanities?  Si, Se Puede!  Course Design Experiences from the Flipped/Hybrid Classroom.”

Don’t you love the beautiful poster they’ve prepared for me?  It’s really neat and I’m excited about the whole thing.

I believe that the humanities are the sciences that help us understand the belief systems we have.  The arts are the sciences that help us invent the belief systems we need.

And I believe that teaching the Humanities from the Point of View of Love and in a way that students love can get students to fall in love with the humanities, appreciate their significance, and become lifetime learners that will require these courses in their curricula.

In a crisis, reinventions are a path to the future.

Reinventions may be a challenge for large institutions because much agility is needed.

In a smaller context, activating the imagination together may be easier.

When we interpret the Arts and Humanities as sciences that help us understand the present and invent the future we need, we would not remotely consider doing away with them.

And yet, when a university is threatened with losing about one third of its total budget from one year to the next, one has to activate the imagination very quickly for a prayer to save these significant learning tools.

That’s what my proposal does.  The millennial generation loves to learn online.  It’s starved for knowledge they can use to invent the future they need.  What we can give them is a structure that will empower them to learn digitally about these things.  That’s what my course does.

The ways that love has been practiced across time and space are so diverse.  They’re so imaginative.  Learning about them is a way to learn about the beauty and diversity of our species.  And thus acquire the tools to co-design the amorous lives one wishes.

This is the reinvention I propose for a basic, two-semester course that’s part of most university curricula in the US and territories.

It has worked well at UPRM.

I’ve produced the Lectures for the period 1500-2000.

I’ve embedded all tests and learning modules in the Canvas LMS system.

I’ve taught the hybrid/flipped form for one semester, Fall 2016.

I’ve measured the results in a Survey and an Encuesta.

Students have given evidence of their love for the course with direct action as course protectors.  When we had a chance to run the course as hybrid/flipped, we created together this inspiring video.

The project is seeking an open heart space, a campus, ecoversity, or other kind of hospitable institution, eager to see it evolve into the next stage.  This could include producing the Lectures for the period Neolithic to 1500, upgrading the first semester to hybrid/flipped, and upgrading both semesters to MOOC, or massive online open-enrollment course.

Access the pdf print of the presentation “Falling in Love with the Humanities?  Si, Se Puede! ” at this link.  Enjoy!  Imagine the project done.

An investment in this project can accomplish many things at once:

  1. Take a basic course for a walk out of the presential classroom.
  2.  Optimize this course so it can be featured in the world-wide digital sphere.
  3.  Get millennial students to fall in love with the humanities and become lifetime learners.
  4.  Get the university that sponsors this project on the map of those institutions that care about the public and offer basic courses for free.
  5.  Offer potential students from all over the world a taste of this institution and attract them to study at the school and become part of the region.

These all seem very desirable things to me.  They can save money too, while keeping quality and even improving it.  I am investing my energies in these possibilities.

Send good energies and wish the project good luck!

Thank you!

drserenagaia

aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

header-per-serena
Professor of Humanities and Cinema
Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium
Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, Storrs (2012-13)
Project: “Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema”

 

Your Experience in Humanities 3112-Hybrid: Humanities and Love

Evaluation Survey Humanities 3112 – Hybrid Fall 2016

The Survey: “Your Experience in Humanities 3112-Hybrid”

šThis anonymous Survey was called “Your Experience in Humanities 3112-Hybrid.”

šThe study measures the quality of the educational experience in the Hybrid Sections of the course Humanities 3112, with thematic organization: Humanities and Love.

šThe Survey assesses the quality of interdependent and integrated elements in the distance and presential  modules of the course which constitute the Hybrid modality.

šThe Survey integrates elements of the experiential segment of the COE (Cuestionario de Opinion Estudiantil), of the “best-practices” empirically formulated by CREAD, and of the Objectives of the Course, as described in the syllabus.

šThe Survey: Characteristics

The course is an integrated study of the Humanities from 1500 to the present.

šRespondents are from the first three sections of the course taught in a Hybrid modality in the Fall of 2016.

šThe Survey was taken anonymously by participating students.

šIt was open on the Canvas LMS portal from November 10 to the 22.

šParticipation was 78.5 {a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}, with 55 students responding over a total of 70 currently in the course.

šThe Survey has 40 questions, with the results of each reported below.  In-Progress results speak of an overwhelmingly positive experience.  For details skip to penultimate slide.

The Survey is available at this link.

šIn-Progress Results

Event from a first glance to the percentages obtained in the top two options in each questions (Excellent and Very Good), it appears that the Hybrid course was an overwhelmingly positive experience for a vast majority of enrolled students.

šMore specific insights into the “best practices” that work well in this course and other similar courses may be inferred from a more specific analytical observation and discussion of the results in each question and cluster of related questions.

Thank you!

Questions, comments, observations?

 

It’s a GO – First Hybrid/Blended Sections of The Humanities and Love at UPRM

Dear world–

The proposal below was approved in April 14th, 2016.  It is for a hybrid/blended edition of the course Humanities 3112, thematically organized as The Humanities from the Point of View of Love.

Two sections of H-Humanities 3112 have been opened for the August 2016, offering.  They filled up quickly.  A third section was opened later, and it filled out as well.  This makes me feel they respond to a need and I’m very happy.

20160818_151641The Fall 2016 semester just started and I feel very happy that students in my courses can actively choose a hybrid/blended modality.  They are very excited to study the Humanities from the Point of View of Love.  My intent for the semester is that in the context of the new modality, the theme and the experience of being in the course align in more effective ways.

It is great to have one’s academic freedom returned.  It makes me love my job again.

I am also very happy about the new administrative stability the department has found under the directorship of Hector Huyke and Jeffrey Herlihy.  This happy resolution and new homeostatic balance was the work of a considerate and tactful colleague, Roberta Orlandini.  I am very grateful to her as well.

Proposal’s Documents–

My Proposal for a Hybrid Edition of an Existing Humanities Course at UPRM is coming up for evaluation.

It required the preparation of a Proposal Package composed of documents and online course materials.

It is the first time that a proposal like this is on the table.  Therefore I am making the whole package accessible here.

Proposal for a Hybrid Edition of Humanities  3112 at this link.

Hybrid Humanities 3112 – Template Syllabus at this link.

Conventional Humanities 3112 – Template Syllabus at this link.

Narrative Comparing Hybrid and Conventional Editions at this link.

Letter of Collaboration from CREAD at this link.

Online Course Content: Nine One-Hour Lectures on Early Modern and Modern History at this link.

Enjoy!

A Final Comment–Let’s Stop Discrimination against Bisexual People

This process started three years ago.   I believe it took so long to get this approval because my department and university are aware of my bisexual orientation (from my research) but not aware of how bisexual people are discriminated in the workplace.  So inadvertently they treated me differently from non-bisexual people.

An article I published in BiTopia (2011) indicates very clearly how bisexual people are typically treated in the workplace.  This type of discrimination is very different from that experienced by most monosexual people, for example, gays and lesbians, who are often oblivious to it, if not inadvertently complicitous.

In most workplaces where awareness of this kind of discrimination is not present, bisexual people are typically considered both “unpromotable” and “unreliable” because they are interpreted as people in-transition, confused, and unstable.  No matter how inconsistent that interpretation may be with reality, bisexual people are discriminated accordingly.  Bisexual people are the largest group in the LGBT spectrum.  We are a large group made to suffer in silence a lot.

I wish this kind of discrimination to stop, for all those it might affect, including myself.  Therefore I am making this article accessible in its pdf form here.

The research was conducted by Heidi Bruins Greens, Nicholas Payne, and Jamison Green.  Blessings to their efforts!

If you’re not aware of discrimination patterns against bisexual people, here’s a great opportunity to educate yourself.

Thank you.

Enjoy!

Revised August 22, 2016