Category: Essays

illustration of a dog surrounded by human hands

Beastly Consent and Relationships Beyond Boundaries

Vita Sleigh investigates the connections between animal consent, interspecies erotics, and the (at times violent) power differentials that characterize commonly experienced relationships with animals. How can we attend to the otherness of creatures and hold our attractions to them with care?

A verdant landscape is intersected by ropes sectioning off the landscape from visitors.

Swampy Relations & Imperfect Restoration

There’s a sinking swamp in the middle of Manhattan that has kept a host of species safe for millennia. Nat Xu uses the space and their work in it to reflect on Indigenous stewardship, more-than-human precarity, and restorative conservation as an imperfect practice.

orange, green, yellow, and brown samples in petri dishes that have the appearance of dried dirt or moss

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.

a red fox standing on a car hood, staring through the windshield at a person

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.

A tree overlooking a rocky seashore in Japan

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.

people sitting in a lamp lit, run down room with patterned wallpaper and holes in the ceiling. A message on the wall reads "the seed has been planted"

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.

Sand and machine on top of red brick wall.

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.