After sharing that I came to Yichun for my dissertation research on forestry history of the People’s Republic of China, I was told that I came to the wrong place.
A Platform on Representation, Engagement, and Community
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“You Are Here:” Deep Time at the Smithsonian
Looking back, my fascination with museums has clearly played out in my doctoral research on emerging relationships between humans and nonhumans under ecological emergency. Unsurprisingly, the natural history museum is one of the most fraught sites in which these relationships have historically been constructed.
A Van Down by the Climbing Gym
When I worked for a rock climbing gym in Denver, Colorado between college and graduate school, I never asked my van-dwelling coworkers what they thought about living out of their vehicles across a fence from people experiencing homelessness.
Liquid Geographies, Uneven Worlds: How Do We Talk About Placing Water?
As I sit in my home in Serampore, India, flanked by the river Hugli and waiting for the already delayed Monsoons to arrive and bring with it some relief, in what has been a record-breaking and extraordinarily hot summer in India, I recognize that writing about water in place-based research is a self-defeating endeavor.
The Bengal Tiger: A Survivor’s Story
The decimation of the Bengal Tiger, the national animal of both India and Bangladesh, already started in the colonial period through big game hunting, which depleted the numbers of tigers beyond recovery.
Touring Tough Oil: A Reflection on the Infrastructure of Offshore Energy
This year, I had a somewhat unusual birthday request. During a beach trip with my partner and friends down to Galveston, Texas, I asked that we visit the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum.
Am I the “Nature Faker?”: Defining Myself in an Academic World
As long as I gain some sort of enjoyment from learning about the environment’s impact on history, should that be enough to consider myself an environmental historian? I believe so. It will just have to include dogs.
Virginal Lands and Bodies: Colonial Domination of Nature and Purity
The historical, and continued, intertwining of white supremacy, colonization, and Christianity has created an interconnected web of oppression and domination.
Invisible Disaster?: Writing Air Pollution into the Disaster Pantheon
Originally inspired by my dissertation research on the historical development of Mexico City’s persistent air pollution problem, this reflection recentely took on a renewed sense of urgency.
The Perils of a Writer’s Profession: Overcoming Writer’s Block
If you are a person who will spend a great deal of your professional life writing, you too are likely to become afflicted by Writer’s Block at some point.