"I am placed," writes Amanda Hooykaas. What Hooykaas, a master's student at College of the Atlantic, is referring to is not at all a competitive ranking in school or athletics. She is speaking about her sense of connection to a land, to a community, to a place.

But Hooykaas worries that not everyone is truly "placed." In fact, she is concerned that a sense of placelessness pervades our culture and causes people to not care about each other and the world they live in. Hooykaas will be talking about the sense of place, and placelessness, on Monday, May 12 from 4 to 5:30 in the college's McCormick Lecture Hall, when she discusses "The Study of Placelessness: Toward a Conceptual Framework," the thesis she has written to receive a Master of Philosophy degree, or MPhil from COA.

During this public presentation, Hooykaas hopes to generate a general conversation based on her research.

Hooykaas, who is from Orillia, in central Ontario, holds an Honours Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Waterloo, also in Ontario. She will be returning to Waterloo this fall, working toward a PhD in geography.

"Everyone knows about place," says Hooykaas. "Few have taken the time to articulate it. Place is so crucial in being able to preserve one's self and community and landscape." She also feels it is crucial to discuss and recognize place, emphasizing the difference between spaces-through which we move-and places-to which we connect.

"A major yet rarely acknowledged phenomenon facing North Americans is the prioritization of self over community, self-indulgence over stewardship," Hooykaas writes in her introduction. "We acknowledge that there might be climate change;  . . . we close our SUV windows when there are smog warnings; we don't, however, truly act as if we care about the landscapes impacted by our choices."

The consequences of this trend are more than just a lack of feeling, or connection. Ultimately, Hooykaas concludes, "without being placed stewardship cannot be achieved."

For more information about this talk and discussion, call COA at 288-5015.