The Pleasures of Teaching Plastic
Plastic shapes us even as it contributes to our destruction. A performance studies scholar shares her creative approach to teaching about plastic and identity in an unavoidably plastic world.
Category: Fieldnotes
Wading out the Kickapoo River Flood
After historic floods devastate Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, a team of scientists reflects on their fieldwork in the Kickappo River Valley to make sense of an entangled, multispecies world.
Private Land Conservation is Troubling—and Probably Indispensable
When a writer joins scientists on a mushroom hunt at a Gilded Age wilderness retreat, she grapples with the exclusions and inequalities that have produced such an ecologically valuable landscape.
Love for Home in a Place Industry Left Behind
When the mines closed throughout Wisconsin’s Gogebic Range, its population collapsed. But many left their hearts there. Now some are even moving back.
Ole Miss and the Shadow of Slavery: A Conversation with Jeffrey Jackson and Charles Ross
Ivy League institutions are scrambling to uncover their links to the history of slavery. But the University of Mississippi—built by slaves, amid slave plantations, for slaveowners to teach future slaveowners—might offer the richest insights into the nation’s unshakable ties to centuries of bondage.
A Syllabus for Teaching Water Politics
A new syllabus outlines a series of readings for teaching the politics of water.
Suburban Commuters, Urban Polluters
The migration of African Americans to cities and the rise of a commuter culture in the suburbs were shaped by one transformative technology: the automobile.
Global Environmental Change in Indonesia: A Roundtable
Indonesian is known both for biodiversity and environmental degradation. This tension resonates with the stories we tell about global environmental change.
The Itchy Ecology of Segregation: A Conversation with Dawn Biehler
For many of us, mosquitos are an annoying fact of life in the summer. But for Dawn Biehler, they are also a symptom of social inequality.
Rethinking American Agriculture: Fertilized Farms and Victory Gardens
Fresh perspectives on fertilizer use and victory gardens reveal complex connections between business, the state, and the natural environment.
