"Ecological Feminism and Virtual Worlds," given by Sharon Collingwood at the conference "Ecofeminism in a Transnational World," University of Connecticut, March 2009.
Below are sites mentioned in the presentation. To visit, you must have the Second Life program active (http://www.secondlife.com).
Minerva Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Minerva/10/10/29/
OSU Medicine
http://slurl.com/secondlife/OSU Medicine/225/149/25/
The Hip-Hop Underground
http://slurl.com/secondlife/OSU Medicine/49/118/24/
The Masque of the Red Death
http://slurl.com/secondlife/TELRport/62/93/21/
Virtual Africa
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Africa/137/87/23
(see also: http://slafrica.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/not-ingenious-but-indigenous-africa-in-virtual-worlds/)
Center for Water Studies, Better World Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Better World/62/16/32/
NOAA
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteora/94/237/23/
Resources
NPIRL (Not Possible in Real Life). This blog chronicles the artist community in Second Life http://npirl.blogspot.com/
Virtual Praxis: Women and Community in Second Life. The first international women's conference in Second Life. Some of the papers are archived here.
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/collingwood7/minerva/conference.html
Second Life Educators Discussion Listserv https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators
Sources
Harrison, D. (2009). Second Life's Role in a Curriculum. Campus Technology. (Article on Elon University's carbon footprint house.) Accessed 19 March 2009 from
http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/03/18/Teaching-in-the-Trenches-Second-Lifes-Role-in-a-Curriculum.aspx?Page=1
Landay, L. (2008) Having But Not Holding: Consumerism & Commodification in Second Life. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (1,2.) Available as a .pdf file, found here: https://journals.tdl.org/jvwr/article/view/355/265
Linden, F.J. (2009, May 14) The greening of Second Life. Second Life Blogs. Accessed May 15 from http://tinyurl.com/q8w635 UPDATED
Roy, R., Yarrow, P. & Yarrow, K. (2005). Towards Sustainable Higher Education: Environmental impacts of campus-based and distance higher education systems.
Open University, Available as a .pdf file, found here
http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/3/2005331_47403_o1.pdf
"Whitehall Defends "Fantasy World." (2009, March 19) BBC News, U.K. Accessed 19 March 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7952213.stm. (Government defends spending tax dollars on private space in Second Life, on the grounds that it is saving taxpayers money and lowering the government's carbon footprint.)
CLOSING QUESTIONS:
What needs or wants are satisfied by a consumerist lifestyle in SL? Does replacing the physical with the virtual allow us to critically examine our behavior, or does it exacerbate our materialism? How does this relate to the commodification of women?
What are the possibilities for social change inherent in a 3-D social platform? Can issues of race, gender, age, ability and sexual orientation be more easily studied in a virtual space?
How will women's lives be changed by the restructuring of the economy caused by the shift to digital (e.g. working at home, distance education)?
The digital divide: do virtual worlds mean anything to women of the developing world?