Into the Not-So-Wild World of Pokémon

From adorable pets to exotic safaris, the Pokémon universe offers a sprawling jungle gym for players. Writer and gamer Nate Carlin gives a guided tour of what he calls the franchise’s naive ecotopia.

Portrait of white woman in a gown, a young African boy, and a parrot showing multispecies friendship.

The Boy and The Bird

Nancy J. Jacobs explores the thought-provoking, tragic relationship between enslaved Africans and the African grey parrot in eighteenth century European portraiture.

Fire burning through dead grass and smoke rising up.

When Aboriginal Burning Practices Meet Colonial Legacies in Australia

Aboriginal burning regimes have become popular as a solution to prevent catastrophic wildfires in Australia. Mardi Reardon-Smith argues that Aboriginal peoples’ fire knowledge is not static, as contemporary burning results from both colonial histories and the intercultural co-creation of environmental knowledges.

Bog with green vegetation and blue water

Swamp Feelings

Annie Proulx’s 2022 book Fen, Bog, and Swamp is a melancholy love letter to wetland ecosystems. But missing from this lament, Nino McQuown argues, are hopeful histories of resistance.