Ecotones Now: Recent Episodes

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It’s the finale of Ecotones Now’s first season! In this episode, co-hosts Emma and Natalie chat with members of EHN’s executive team about the past year and what’s in store for the future of EHN. Thank you for sticking with us – we’ll be back in the spring with Season 2! In the meantime, check out https://envhistnow.com/ for updates more work from EHN’s fabulous contributors. Emma C. Moesswilde (she/her) is EHN’s outreach coordinator and co-host of Ecotones Now, EHN’s companion podcast. She’s a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Georgetown University. Her dissertation project investigates the relationships between climate change and agricultural practice by examining rural experiences of and adaptations to seasonal variability across the British Northern Atlantic from 1690-1816. Emma is committed to incorporating multidisciplinary methods and evidence to understand how rural communities responded and adapted to climate change over the course of the early modern period.Natalie R. Wilkinson (she/her) is co-host of Ecotones Now, EHN’s companion podcast. She recently received her MA in History at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to OU, she studied Film at the San Francisco Art Institute. Natalie’s research interests lie in history of ecology and resource management.Dr. Elizabeth Hameeteman (she/her) is the executive editor of EHN, and created this platform in 2018. She recently obtained her PhD in History at Boston University. Her dissertation, titled “Pipe Parity: Desalination, Development, and the Global Quest for Water in the 1950s and 1960s,” explored the role of desalination as a seemingly viable adaptation strategy to reduce the impact of water scarcity and climate variability in the post-WWII period. Originally from the Netherlands and now based in Berlin, Elizabeth has a background in Law and American Studies. Dr. Ramya Swayamprakash (she/her/Amma) is an assistant executive editor for EHN and also the editor of our Tools for Change series. She’s an Assistant Professor in Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies at the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. A transnational and interdisciplinary environmental scholar who doctoral work focused on rivers, dredging, and the place of nature in the Great Lakes, Ramya’s research has been published in academic and public-facing avenues. She takes tea and dredging (not necessarily in that order) seriously. In addition to her work on the Great Lakes, Ramya is now going back to her earlier interest in dams in post colonial India. As a survivor of domestic abuse and as a single parent, Ramya’s scholarship is driven by a commitment to social/ecological justice and equity.Dr. Diana M. Valencia (she/ella) is an assistant executive editor for EHN. She recentely received her PhD in History at the University of Exeter. Her research focused on food security and food sovereignty in the Colombian peasant landscape, reviewing impacts on food culture and agroecosystems resulting from the practical resolution of Agrarian Reforms and counter-reforms. A Colombian herself, Diana is a multidisciplinary investigation, combining rural studies and food security theory with environmental history methods, aiming for practical impact and to inform food production debates. She makes the case for communities and their territories by giving voice to the peasantry as subject and agents of their own history.This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. For more on Ecotones Now, click here. Thanks for listening!A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/3G6hhTG

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In this episode, assistant executive editor Dr. Ramya Swakamprakash and contributor Dr. Celeste Henery discuss going beyond academia, translation of concepts, the practice of writing, and much more.Dr. Ramya Swayamprakash (she/her/Amma) is an assistant executive editor for EHN and also the editor of our Tools for Change series. She’s an Assistant Professor in Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies at the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. A transnational and interdisciplinary environmental scholar who doctoral work focused on rivers, dredging, and the place of nature in the Great Lakes, Ramya’s research has been published in academic and public-facing avenues. She takes tea and dredging (not necessarily in that order) seriously. In addition to her work on the Great Lakes, Ramya is now going back to her earlier interest in dams in post colonial India. As a survivor of domestic abuse and as a single parent, Ramya’s scholarship is driven by a commitment to social/ecological justice and equity.Dr. Celeste Henery (she/her) is a cultural anthropologist working at the intersections of race, gender, and health; specifically, what it means to feel well, individually and collectively, in these troubling times. Her broader research interests include black ecologies, feminisms, and diaspora studies. Celeste currently works as a Research Associate in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her writing on black life across the diaspora has been published in various academic journals and frequently appears on the blog Black Perspectives. In addition to her academic endeavors, Celeste works as a mitigation specialist, conducts interviews for the Texas After Violence Project, and guides others to creatively navigate their projects and lives.Further Reading:Celeste Henery, "Walking and Writing in Unsettled Times," https://envhistnow.com/2021/09/10/problems-of-place-walking-and-writing-in-unsettled-times/This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. For more on Ecotones Now, click here. Thanks for listening!A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/3Y5Iht7

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In this episode, Luísa Reis-Castro shares “Politics of Nature: Mosquitos, Pathogens, and That Which Divides Brazil.”

Dr. Luísa Reis-Castro (she/ela) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities for 2021-2023. She earned her PhD in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) at MIT. Her dissertation, “Vectors of Health: Epidemics, Ecologies, and the Reinvention of Mosquito Science in Brazil,” examined efforts to address the pathogenic viruses transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever—and argues that their enrollment in various scientific and health campaigns can be understood as materializing a racialized politics of the Brazilian nation.

You can read a text version of this piece and view further reading at https://envhistnow.com/2020/09/10/mosquitoes-pathogens-and-that-which-divides-brazil/

Notes and Further Reading:

-Abortion is, however, legal in cases of rape, risk to the mother’s life, and anencephalic fetuses.

-Together with anthropologist of health Carolina Nogueira, I have examined how in Brazil there was an almost exclusive focus on the vectoral and vertical transmission routes, even though the pathogen can also be transmitted through fluids. Zika was then framed as a virus transmitted only by mosquitoes and the epidemic as a concern only for women. This negligence to attend to transmission through fluids, especially the sexual transmission of Zika, left many women at risk of infection. “Who Should Be Concerned? Zika as an Epidemic About Mosquitoes and Women (And Some Reflections On COVID-19),” Somatosphere (April 6, 2020). Also forthcoming, “Uma Antropologia da Transmissão: mosquitos, mulheres e a epidemia de Zika no Brasil,” Ilha: Revista de Antropologia.

-Golpe is the Portuguese word for coup d’état. Political commentators and scholars have argued the impeachment process was a “parliamentary coup” with judicial and media support. Even Temer, who took over Roussef, has called the process a golpe at an interview once. Besides coup d’état, the word golpe can also mean a con or a blow: the very controversial legality and legitimacy of the process can already be seen as a heavy hit to the stability of the democratic institutions and to the trust into the rule of law.

-Gabriel Lopes and Luísa Reis-Castro, “A Vector in the (Re)Making: A History of Aedes Aegypti as Mosquitoes That Transmit Diseases in Brazil,” in Framing Animals as Epidemic Villains, ed. Christos Lynteris (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 147-175.

-Anahí Guedes de Mello and Gabriela Rondon (2020), however, have shown how the right to abortion, as part of the struggle to secure concrete conditions for an autonomous life, is a common ground between demands from feminist and disability rights movements. “Feminism, Disability, and Reproductive Autonomy: Abortion in Times of Zika in Brazil.” Somatosphere (February 17, 2020).

This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. Thanks for listening!

A full transcript of this episode is available at: bit.ly/3VcuU8q

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In this episode, Ana Sekulić shares “On Finding Self In Scholarship.”

Dr. Ana Sekulić (she/her) recently received her PhD in Ottoman History from Princeton University. Her dissertation, “Conversion of the Landscape: Environment and Religious Politics in an Early Modern Ottoman Town,” examines how religious change and interactions between Catholic and Muslim communities found expression in the natural environment of Ottoman Bosnia. Her research explores intersections of religious thought, cultural history, and the natural world.

You can read a text version of this piece and view further reading at https://envhistnow.com/2021/09/08/problems-of-place-on-finding-self-in-scholarship/

Notes and Further Reading: Albert Bordeaux, La Bosnie populaire (Paris: Librarie Plon, 1904). Char Miller, “Foreword,” in Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash (New Haven, CT: Yale University 2014). Eli Claire, Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015). Sarah Jacquette Ray, “Risking Bodies in the Wild: The ‘Corporeal Unconscious’ of American Adventure Culture,” in Disability Studies and Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory, ed. Sarah Jacquette Ray and Jay Sibara (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2017). Alison Kafer, “Bodies of Nature: The Environmental Politics of Disability,” in Disability Studies and Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory, ed. Sarah Jacquette Ray and Jay Sibara (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2017). Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1995). This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. For more on Ecotones Now, click here. Thanks for listening!

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/3thm8tI

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In this episode, Ligia Arguilez shares “How My Nana Taught Me To Listen to Plants.”

A fronteriza with deep ties on both sides of the border, Ligia Arguilez (she/her) is a PhD student in the Borderlands History program at the University of Texas, El Paso. She studies the U.S.-Mexico borderlands through culture and the environment. Her dissertation focuses on the human-plant relationship between the dominant desert shrub—the creosote bush—and the diverse peoples of the region over centuries. Her research reveals the plant’s ties to paradigms of progress and modernity, identity, memory, ecosensorial attachments to place, land use patterns, and perceptions of the arid North American deserts. Ligia is currently creating an oral history archive of people-plant histories from the U.S.-Mexico border. Her undergraduate research was on barbed wire and the incarceration of Mexican nationals in the U.S. at Mexican internment camps along the border in 1913-1914.

You can read a text version of this piece and view further reading at https://envhistnow.com/2020/02/12/how-my-nana-taught-me-to-listen-to-plants/

Notes and Further Reading: - See also Arguilez’s work on ecological oral history: https://oralhistoryaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021-Issue43-Reports.pdf#page=9.

This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. For more on Ecotones Now, click here. Thanks for listening!

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gCcWSvGo6z797FmC_YYH7xpatZ3SFWGZ-pL3spgUcU0/edit

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In this episode, Kristen Brig-Ortiz shares “The Environmental Impact of Protest: A View From South Africa.”

Kristin Brig-Ortiz (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Her dissertation examines how municipal administrators and residents cooperated and conflicted over how to manage their clean and waste water in Cape Colony and Natal port cities, roughly between 1840 and 1910. More broadly, Kristin is interested in the intersections of public health, the environment, and technology in nineteenth-century British South Africa.

You can read a text version of this piece and view further reading at https://envhistnow.com/2021/08/25/politics-of-nature-the-environmental-impact-of-protest-a-view-from-south-africa/

Notes and Further Reading: - The three cities most affected were Johannesburg (Gauteng), Pietermaritzburg (KZN), and Durban (KZN). -The Daily Maverick has been a particularly good source of news, as it features a number of perspectives on the situation. This op-ed has a good timeline for how events unfolded. -Two significant clean-up efforts posted their updates and photos via Facebook: Clean up Durban and Rebuild SA. -In Durban, the eThekwini municipality has organized the larger environmental clean-ups, while community and business groups have performed the majority of local recovery. -For more on this subject, see e.g. Roger Gocking, “Ghana’s Bui Dam and the Contestation over Hydro Power in Africa,” African Studies Review 64, 2 (June 2021): 339-362; Christopher Rootes (ed.), Environmental Protest in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003); Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007).

This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. For more on Ecotones Now, click here. Thanks for listening!

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/3E279dQ

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In this episode, Asmae Ourkiya shares “Bodies and Sexuality in Gilead: A Queer Ecofeminist Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Asmae Ourkiya (they/them) is a review editor for EHN. They are a Moroccan environmentalist and human rights activist residing in Cork, Ireland. After securing a Masters degree in Green Cultural Studies, Asmae is currently a PhD candidate and a research and teaching assistant at Mary Immaculate College at the University of Limerick. Their main research interests are queer ecofeminism, social justice, environmental justice, climate change, minority rights, and human rights. Asmae’s dissertation focuses on expanding queer intersectional ecofeminism. With the aim of disseminating their research findings, they are also a freelance journalist who contributed to a number of magazines and online platforms such as RTÉ Brainstorm and The Green News Ireland. They have also been active internationally to support different causes revolving around but not limited to climate justice, minority rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights.

You can read a text version of this piece and view further reading at https://envhistnow.com/2020/09/24/bodies-and-sexuality-in-gilead/.

Notes and Further Reading: - Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet, and critic known for her environmental activism in her writing. Her book The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian speculative novel published in 1985 that depicts the horrors of a totalitarian regime that took over the United States, and that enforces the domination and subjugation of women by men. - Ecofeminism, as both an intersectional movement and critical theory, is useful for analyzing oppressive hierarchical systems and seeing how they are intertwined. Ecofeminism is an activist movement and literary theory that links the oppression of women and minorities to the oppression of nature. It emerged in the 1970s amidst women from different backgrounds and further developed in academia in the 1990s. Ecofeminism has been queered by a number of researchers in environmental humanities, including Jessica Ison, Catriona Sandilands, Greta Gaard, Joni Seage, and Ariel Salleh. These scholars have merged queer ecology and ecological feminism. They discuss the negative impacts of heterosexism and heteronormativity on society and our understanding of the natural world. For more, see also Asmae’s recent article on NiCHE. - In Gilead, a woman with a sinful past is any woman who did not follow a Christian life, was in a relationship without marriage, was sleeping with a married man, gave birth to a child outside of marriage, or was a lesbian. Throughout the show, we learn that the handmaids were chosen based on these criteria, while righteous women were left to live in their households with their families. - Michael P. Zirinsky, “Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921-1926,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 24, no. 4 (November 1992): 639-663. See more in Ervand Abrahamian’s Iran Between Two Revolutions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982).

This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman. For more on Ecotones Now, click here. Thanks for listening!

A full transcript of this episode is available at https://bit.ly/3E279dQ

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In this episode, Anna Guasco shares “Problems of Place: The Trouble with Fieldwork, or Troubling Embodiment.”

Anna Guasco (she/her) is a PhD candidate and Gates Cambridge Scholar in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral work focuses on histories, narratives, and environmental justice issues surrounding the migration and conservation of gray whales along the North American Pacific Coast. She holds a BA in American Studies from Carleton College and an MSc in Environment, Culture and Society from the University of Edinburgh, and her prior professional work includes working as a national park ranger in California.

You can read a text version of this piece and view further reading at https://envhistnow.com/2022/03/03/problems-of-place-the-trouble-with-fieldwork-or-troubling-embodiment/.

Further Reading: - Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978). - Tao Leigh Goffe on coloniality, mapping, unknowability, and the body in “Unmapping the Caribbean: Toward a Digital Praxis of Archipelagic Sounding,” Archipelagos Journal (2020). - Jaipreet Virdi on pain, embodiment, and history in the series “Painful Realities,” Wellcome Collection (2019). - Johanna Carolina Jokinen and Martina Angela Caretta on embodiment and “fieldwork” in “When Bodies Do Not Fit: An Analysis of Postgraduate Fieldwork,” 23, no. 12 (2016). Alice Wong (ed.),NY: Vintage Books, 2020). - “Editorial” (as well as all other writers’ contributions) in the special issue on “Bodies of Nature: Survival Lessons from Disabled Communities,” in Orion Magazine 40, no. 4 (Winter 2021). - Imani Barbarin’s work on the Crutches & Spice blogblog and the late Stella Young’s “I Am Not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much,” (April 2014). - William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature,” in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature, ed. William Cronon (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1995), 69-90. - Sarah Pickman’s reflection on Howkins’ “going there” in a piece for EHN (July 16, 2021). Johanne Bruun’s Arctic Cultures blog on conducting polar history work in/outside the field is also helpful on these ideas. - See also Diana Valencia’s piece on “The Carbon Footprint of Environmental Research” for EHN (October 24, 2019).

This show is produced and edited by Emma Moesswilde and Natalie Wilkinson, with music provided by Natalie Jo Rose Wilkinson and Christine Murphy. Special thanks to Elizabeth Hameeteman.

A full transcript of this episode is available at: https://bit.ly/3QQP9WM.