Douglas Haynes

Learning in the Age of Loneliness: Reimagining Education for the Anthropocene

“Learning in the Age of Loneliness: Reimagining Education for the Anthropocene” is a narrative nonfiction book that synthesizes innovative pedagogical approaches to addressing today’s equity, wellness, and ecological crises. Through deeply reported accounts of outstanding curricula and learning environments in primary, secondary, and post- secondary institutions in Wisconsin, this public-facing work amplifies scholarly calls for new educational models while immersing readers in examples of them centered on place, experiential learning, and entanglement with the more-than- human world. The book’s six chapters weave a tapestry of values, skills, methods, and knowledge that provide a conceptual foundation for broadly transforming education.

Douglas Haynes is a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he teaches creative nonfiction writing and the environmental humanities. His 2017 narrative nonfiction book Every Day We Live Is the Future: Surviving in a City of Disasters (U of Texas Press) is a cautionary tale of urban inequality and the climate crisis that recounts two Nicaraguan families’ quests to reinvent their lives in Managua, one of the world’s most disaster-prone cities. Douglas’s essays and journalism have appeared in Orion, Longreads, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Progressive, Witness, Boston Review, North American Review and dozens of other publications. He is also the author of a poetry chapbook, Last Word.