Catholic churches in the U.S. are decorated with a shared, recurring cycle of select plants. Rebecca Laurent and Emily Burke dig into the historical and political roots of poinsettias and Easter lilies and what their floral glory tells us about nature, religion, and colonialism.
What’s in a name? Knowledge, power, and history, Jens Benöhr, Constanza López, and Kara Lena Virik argue. The scientific names of plants root botanical knowledge in colonial relationships. To decolonize ecology, we must embrace the pluriverse of knowing, naming, and living with the world.
Laleh Ahmad speaks with Ramachandra Guha on his new book, Speaking with Nature (2024). They discuss the history of environmentalism in India and how it differs from the West, especially through key thinkers’ intertwining of social justice and nature.
Ivey Wexler draws parallels between libertarian’s interest in seasteading to oceanic colonialism in the nineteenth century, especially as Robert Stevenson illustrated in The Ebb-Tide.
Benjamin Chin-Hung Kao looks beyond the often-cutesy appearance of bears in Japanese popular culture to discover their role in the country’s violent colonial history and present.
Cathleen McCluskey speaks with Andrea Brower on the intersections of colonialism, neoliberalism, and plantations in agricultural systems—from Hawai’i and beyond. How might possibilities of a better future be imagined through political and social resistance?
Charis Enns & Brock Bersaglio use Laikipia County, Kenya to trace connections between settler colonial power and conservation, offering an “other” way of maintaining biodiversity that prioritizes Indigenous Peoples and their endangered livestock species.
Sadie Rittman explores the history and significance of Pikirangi—a reforestation project—in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Paul Sutter interviews Simone Müller about the famous case of the Khian Sea, a “renegade ship” carrying waste and trying to dock in different countries. The ship reveals the many contradictions within environmental movements and policies.
Edge Effects invites scholars from different disciplines to introduce texts on the complexities of borders. This list also includes ideas on how to frame and teach the topic of borders in the classroom.
