This project is part of a larger project where pairs of COPLAC (Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges) students analyze the importance of intentional communities around their respective college towns. We at Keene State College in New Hampshire chose the MorningSun community to study for its close proximity to us and for our interest in its principles. Studying intentional communities is important because it causes us to challenge our own understanding of why we live the way we do by seeing how people can organize effectively around a set of alternative principles.
I am Miles Duhamel, a senior in my last semester at Keene State College in the American Studies program. American Studies provides a platform for us to analyze not just one discipline at a time, but where disciplines like history, culture studies, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and law intersect. I became interested in the class that we’ve made this website for, called Into the Woods, because of its focus on the sustainment of communities. Analyzing communities can help us gain understanding of how smaller societies practice egalitarianism, to which that understanding can help us to better our society in our individual lives.
My name is Savannah Robert and I am a senior at Keene State College. I am an Elementary Education major who fell into American Studies as it is an outlet for both reading and writing. As a future educator, I strongly believe in the power of communities and value their importance in our society. With the research I have done on MorningSun, I believe that their lifestyle would be too extreme to take up within a larger community at this point in human development. However, these small groups are the beginning of something bigger. By having a lifestyle that follows mindfulness and sustainability, MorningSun is paving the path to a more positive world. The beliefs they promote and educate others on, is something I think will make a positive impact for years to come.