Paddling-with the Mississippi River: An Exploration of Building Relationships With Place

Abstract

It is not guaranteed that we will notice or care when life-supporting relationships between humans and more-than-humans are severed or imbalanced. In this dissertation, I argue that moving with a landscape—rooted in place-based ways of knowing—can make visible the complex interconnectedness of relationships with all others that often go ignored or unseen. Through personal narratives and theoretical reflections, I explore how paddling-with the length of the Mississippi River encouraged me to know, feel, and care for the river; to build perspective that, like the river, is capable of holding many tensions and contradictions. Embodied encounters with human, nonhuman, and more-than-human others along the 2,300-mile river directed my attention toward the water and its many uses and identities in ways that challenged the discursive binary of human-nature. I reflect on the transformative power of paddling-with the river to learn from place, reveal histories and practices that are often hidden from the public eye, and expose the vast interconnectedness of living and nonliving entities. I argue that emotionally-charged encounters with different others were vital to my experience building a relationship with the river. Feelings like shame and grief revealed my care and love for the water and propelled me to take action toward more reciprocal, balanced, and life-supporting relationships. Rooted in subjective storytelling and rhetorical analysis, this work explores one of the myriad ways we might be moved to care for earthly coexistence.