The tactile power of the moist black mountain soil that has nourished the coffee estate for nearly a hundred and fifty years ran deep through the cold veins of my bare feet resting on the earth.
A Platform on Representation, Engagement, and Community
Category: Field Notes
Galvanizing Glaciology: Thoughts on an Ecocritical Art History
Glaciers are marked by the contours of time. Flow lines and lateral moraines (ridges of accumulated dirt and rocks) demarcate the movement of ice with traces of debris incised into the glacier’s icy surface. Tributaries, rivers, and floods unfurl the flow of the ice into meltwater. As many of the world’s glaciers continue to thaw and no longer reproduce, they have been classed as an endangered species.
Breaking With Discipline: Studying Environmental History
Some fantastic literature and theory sharpened the stakes of environmental history for me, not as a discipline, but as an enterprise encompassing various methods in understanding past and present socio-ecological transformations, worlds, and crises.
Like A Grain Of Sand
Doing research on dunes is like being a grain of sand in a very wide beach; there are so many factors to consider and so many ways of looking at them.
Advice for Planning and Conducting Archival Research
In memory of the pre-pandemic world, when historians were still able to conduct archival research, I created a checklist based on my own experience.
The Department of State, Safety, and Archives: Research in a Conflict Zone
“Don’t travel at night, don’t travel by car, and don’t travel out of the city,” the warning of the Department of State repeated over and over in my head as we zipped along the small highway in darkness.
Study Abroad: Madagascar’s Cultural and Biological Diversity
It had always been my professional dream to take students on a study abroad program that would be meaningful and impact their outlook on their role in the world.