Losing Touch with Herring in the Rappahannock River
Mara Dicenta Vilker, Micah Dill, and Elena McCullough explore herring as interspecies companions, bringing together herring restoration discourse with fishers’ oral histories.
Category: Essays
How to Be More Like Biocrusts in Precarious Times
Lizzie Smith describes the oft-overlooked living skin of the desert: biological soil crusts or “biocrusts.” Biocrust bundles show that deserts are full of life, wonder, and instructions for a more interconnected future.
Equine Companionship and the Multispecies Construction of Wilderness
Inspired by volunteering on equestrian trail crews in the Cascade Mountains, Kathleen Gekiere argues wilderness is a multispecies performance, embodied by the practices of horses and humans on the trail.
Thinking With Animal Companions: A Keynote
In this series keynote, professor emerita and historian Harriet Ritvo sets the stage for further investigation of “companion species.” She introduces the varied threads of animal companionship—from influence and impact to proximal, favored reciprocity.
Finding Harmony with Japan’s Waves
Erica Cherepko illustrates ways in which Japan’s longstanding, community-based marine conservation utilizes “satoumi” to blend tradition and innovation, protecting coastal ecosystems.
When Humans Burrow
Using the case of Claremont Road, Savannah Pearson speculates why tunneling activism is a popular form of protest in England historically used to fit against government harm to environmental and human systems.
Unruly Sediments
Jac Common & Katy Lewis Hood trace marine aggregates dredging in UK coastal waters across multiple scales, arguing that this extractive industry needs to be situated in colonial and capitalist ocean histories and presents.
Solarpunk Narrates Futures Beyond Climate Despair
Laleh Ahmad argues that the solarpunk genre offers imaginable, realistic green futures based on renewable energy and communal self-reliance, rooted in justice and care.
Change of Air Travel & The Commodification of Leisure
What does turn-of-the-century “Change of Air” travel reveal about the role of vacationing in U.S. culture and society today? Alexis Schmidt examines the historical transition of Change of Air from a legitimate medical prescription into a commodified and efficient vacation on the coast—a cultural attitude that persists in “health” vacation narratives to this day.
What Lichens Teach Us About the Air We Breathe
What can we learn from lichens about the air we breathe? Lucy Sabin shares her creative research on sensing atmospheres with lichens as proxies.
