Thinking Beyond the “Wild” Pandemic
Alice Rudge examines how the language of “nature” has amplified xenophobia and reinforced colonial moral hierarchies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Category: Essays
Tea Gardens and Geographies of Colonial Exploitation
Tea gardens in West Bengal are steeped in legacies of British colonialism. Chandreyi Sengupta, Mrinmoyee Naskar, and Debajit Datta trace the lingering social and environmental impacts of the 19th-century plantation system.
Photographing Isolation and Connection in the Stars
Astrophotography saw Kaitlin Moore through months of COVID-19 lockdown, developing connections among the universe’s most isolated subjects.
Beowulf in Teejop
The way early American scholars studied Beowulf reveals their investments in white Anglo-Saxonism and stolen land. Maxwell Gray considers the consequences of white settler scholarship on Native American lands.
How Being “an Environmentalist” Became an Identity
In the 1960s, environmentalists often pitted the “natural self” against “artificial” social identities like race, class, and gender. Alexander Menrisky argues that this vocabulary still obscures issues of environmental justice in the U.S. today.
This Land Is “Our Land”: Nationalism & Exclusion in Outdoor Recreation
Environmental nationalism has shaped US public lands and outdoor recreation. Jesse Ritner outlines its roots and imagines a way forward.
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.
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?
