Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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The Case to Go to Mars—And the Hope for the Earth
By David Munns *Featured image: Mars Rover. Image: Idaho National Laboratory, [CC-BY 2.0], via Flicker. We need a “hardy, soiled kind of wisdom,” Donna Haraway wrote in her recent book Staying With the Trouble, if we are to avert disaster from climate change even a little bit. Challenging and controversial, the wisdom Haraway seeks comes…
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The History of Munich’s Waste Management
This post by Christian Schnurr, a student of the RCC-LMU Environmental Studies Certificate Program, stems from his research conducted as part of the exhibition project “Ecopolis: Understanding and Imagining Munich’s Environments.” Unless otherwise indicated, images are courtesy of AWM. Source: AWM Festschrift. An opera about rubbish disposal? Die Stadt, composed by Nélida Béjar and directed by Björn…
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Empirical Ecocriticism
Workshop Report (14–15 December 2018, Rachel Carson Center, Munich, Germany) By Alexa Weik von Mossner and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson On 14 and 15 December 2018, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society hosted the workshop Empirical Ecocriticism. Empirical ecocriticism is an emerging subfield of ecocriticism that focuses on the empirically grounded study of environmental narrative—in literature,…
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Make Meadows, Not Lawns
By Rosamund Portus When we think of extinction, we tend to think of a few iconic species, such as the woolly mammoth or the dodo. Although none of us today has ever laid eyes on one—at least not a living specimen— we still mourn their loss.
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RCC Publication Roundup 2018
If you are looking for some good reading material for the festive period and have a taste for environmental history and humanities, look no further! Here is a roundup of the 2018 publications from the RCC and affiliate publishers. RCC Perspectives The online journal publishes provocative, less formal pieces related to the Rachel Carson Center’s…
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Environmental Pasts—Environmental Futures: Perspectives on China
Conference Report (22–24 November 2018, Peking University, Beijing, China) By Elena Feditchkina Tracy (*Featured image: from left: Christof Mauch, Elena Feditchkina Tracy, Maohong Bao, Sophia Kalantzakos, and Fei Sheng) RCC fellows and alumni participated in the LMU-China Academic Network 4th Scientific Forum held on 22–24 November 2018, at Peking University in Beijing, China. Scholars joined their colleagues from Renmin…
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A Fluid History of Wisconsin Breweries
By Doug Hoverson During my research for Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota, a retired employee of the Theo. Hamm Brewing Co. in St. Paul told me: “Beer is 97 percent water, and the other three percent is none of your damn business.”
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Plastic Passport
Hazardous Hope Part 4 By Simone Müller (*Featured image: Photo by Gerry & Bonni [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons) On our way out of office? In leadership counseling, they tell you about three key considerations for deciding if you should fire someone: 1) Did the person receive adequate feedback? 2) Did the person…
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Popularizing Climate Change and the Challenge of Multiple Narratives
By Roberta Biasillo This blog piece is inspired by Harald Lesch’s talk “Science, Society, Signs” at the RCC Lunchtime Colloquium. It focuses on the potential and limits of graphic representations of climate change-related phenomena, interpretations, and understandings. (*Featured image: Peel, M. C., Finlayson, B. L., and McMahon, T. A. (University of Melbourne). Enhanced, modified, and…