Category: Essays

  • Is the Disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, a New Normal?

    Is the Disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, a New Normal?

    By

    Alex George

    and

    Kimberley Thomas

    in

    Shocking events like the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, often get framed as just that–shocking. Alex George and Kimberley Thomas reframe the incident around normal accident theory to emphasize the structural problems at the heart of the train industry.

  • Technological Mediations for Interspecies Communication 

    Technological Mediations for Interspecies Communication 

    By

    Alizée Armet

    in ,

    Alizée Armet asks what happens when we stop trying to interpret plants and fungi as if they were speaking our language. Through a series of living art installations, she explores how humans, plants, fungi, and technology can form new kinds of relationships that challenge human ideas of communication.

  • Translation, Agroforestry, and the Language of Plants

    Translation, Agroforestry, and the Language of Plants

    By

    Lucas Sigefredo

    and

    Lia A. Miranda de Lima

    in

    At first glance, language and restorative agriculture may seem unrelated. But by combining expertise in translation studies and agroforestry, Lia A. Miranda de Lima and Lucas Sigefredo uncover ways of thinking about the language of plants.

  • The Colonial Costs of Shipbreaking

    The Colonial Costs of Shipbreaking

    By

    Md. Borhan Uddin

    and

    Kimberley Thomas

    in

    The shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh is often hailed as an economic success story. Md. Borhan Uddin and Kimberley Thomas explain why this industry is, in fact, an extension of colonial logics.

  • Reggae’s Agrarian Resistance

    Reggae’s Agrarian Resistance

    By

    Carmen Andall-Woodroofe

    in

    The plantation histories and logics carried through roots reggae music inspired Carmen Andall‑Woodroofe to pursue a Ph.D. In this essay, she centers that music to examine plantation futures—and the ways reggae resists them.

  • El Contrato Químico

    El Contrato Químico

    By

    Micaela Edelson

    in

    Micaela Edelson revela los costos para la salud—a menudo ocultos—que conlleva la exposición a pesticidas para los trabajadores agrícolas migrantes en Estados Unidos.

  • Learning from Japanese Knotweed in Brussels’s Feral Wetlands

    Learning from Japanese Knotweed in Brussels’s Feral Wetlands

    By

    Louise Bazelaire

    in

    In the abandoned, deindustrialized interstices of Brussels, feral wetlands flourish. Drawing on conversations with residents, Louise Bazelaire explores the history and politics of these liminal spaces through a plant that is loved and hated in equal measure: Japanese knotweed.

  • The Tenth Century Equivalent of 🍑 🍆? 🥬.

    The Tenth Century Equivalent of 🍑 🍆? 🥬.

    By

    Tiffany VanWinkoop

    in

    When Tiffany VanWinkoop looked through letters between Constantine VII and his friend, she was surprised to read erotic requests for and descriptions of lettuce. Might lettuce be a tenth century equivalent of the contemporary eggplant and peach emoji?

  • Fronds of Knowledge and Decolonial Fern Relations in the Sikkim Himalayas

    Fronds of Knowledge and Decolonial Fern Relations in the Sikkim Himalayas

    By

    Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia

    in

    Views of ferns are as abundant as the plants themselves. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge and a lifetime of close attention, Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia shows how ferns act as decolonial agents—and how they have long been shaped by the landscapes of empire.

  • Bad Bunny’s Botanical, Eco-Rasquache Aesthetic

    Bad Bunny’s Botanical, Eco-Rasquache Aesthetic

    By

    Isaac Salazar

    in

    From sugarcane plantations to broken electricity poles, Bad Bunny presents and protests the historical and lived realities of Puerto Rico. Isaac Salazar argues that his aesthetic is a form of eco-rasquache and a celebration of collective survival under precarity.