An Ecological Case for Cuteness
Many environmentalists are suspicious of cute mascots. Evelyn Ramiel invites us to open our hearts to cute characters that create ecologies of care.
Category: Essays
Poet’s Body as Archive Amidst a Rising Ocean
Western media often portrays Pacific Islanders as helpless victims of “sinking islands.” Kuhelika Ghosh shows how Marshallese poet Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner brings performance poetry to climate activism and resistance.
When Sacred Cows Become Tools of the State
In the midst of India’s beef ban, beef detection kits are supposed to help stop violence against Muslim and Dalit people accused of eating the meat. But do they? Clara Miller and A. Parikh argue that increased surveillance hurts both people and cows.
Farmers Living and Dying by Cotton Seeds in India
Genetically modified cotton seeds are not an easy fix for the struggles of agrarian life. Can cooperative economies help?
How Wendy Red Star Decolonizes the Museum with Humor and Play
“When talking about Indigenous history you can just devastate yourself,” says Apsáalooke artist Wendy Red Star. “And so, humor has been a way for me to cope with that.” Drawing from an original interview with the artist, Nicole Seymour and Salma Monani examine how Red Star uses humor, play, and collaboration to subvert museum stereotypes of Indigenous peoples and reanimate Indigenous pasts—and futures—through art.
Colonial Theft and Indigenous Resistance in the Kleptocene
The term Anthropocene does not address centuries of violent colonial theft. Kyle Keeler proposes a new title: the Kleptocene.
Scarcity and the Suburban Back Yard
What has hoarding during the coronavirus pandemic revealed about the slow violence of plantation histories in suburban back yards? Andrea Knutson traces the logic of scarcity from 17th century Barbados to the local Whole Foods.
Exhibiting Agricultural Development in India
Geographer Eden Kinkaid provides a tour of an exhibit at the National Agricultural Science Museum in India and discusses how it shapes narratives of development and modernity beyond the museum walls.
Fermentation, Rot, and Power in the Early Modern Atlantic
The histories of fermentation and its unruly twin, rot, provide key insights into race, power, and resistance on plantations in the Caribbean.
Fences Tell a Story of Land Changes on the Navajo Nation
For Kelsey Dayle John (Diné), fences provide a site for reflecting on family, history, culture, and Navajo relationships to land and animals.
