Keeping Time with Colombian Plantation Calendars
Timothy Lorek compares two calendars from Colombia that offer competing visions of plantation presents and agricultural futures.
Tagged: History
Composting’s Colonial Roots and Microbial Offshoots
Current methods of composting came out of colonial plantation agriculture, but have become a key way of practicing polyculture and imagining multispecies communities.
John Wesley Powell’s Settler-Colonial Vision for the West
John Wesley Powell is celebrated for his proposed land use reforms in the American West. But his vision did not include Indigenous peoples.
Decolonizing Labor in the Caribbean: A Conversation with Shona Jackson
Dr. Shona Jackson discusses labor in the Caribbean and the need for radical, collective labor histories that include Creole groups and Indigenous peoples.
When a River Is a Border: A Conversation with C.J. Alvarez
A new book, Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the U.S.–Mexico Divide, traces border histories by looking to bridges as well as walls.
Arctic Ecologies, Then and Now: A Conversation with Bathsheba Demuth
Bathsheba Demuth discusses her new book, Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait, and Arctic histories of ecological crisis and hope.
The Social Media of Polar Exploration
Hester Blum’s new book, The News at the Ends of the Earth, explains why 19th-century newspapers printed on polar expeditions offer a model for communicating in the age of climate crisis.
Diving into the History of Seabed Mining
To understand the future of seabed mining, look to the economic and environmental histories of an industry that threatens the stability of the ocean floor.
How Rubber Plantations Reshaped Vietnam: A Conversation with Michitake Aso
An environmental historian explains why, for Vietnam’s rubber plantations and plantation workers, the specifics of colonialism, geography, and ecology matter.
Unearthing the Complex Histories of Madison Parks
Histories of park planners like the Madison Park and Pleasure Drive Association offer a window into the complex pasts and exciting futures of public parks.
