Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Transitions in Energy Landscapes and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
27–29 April 2017, Munich, Germany A report on the workshop sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), Rachel Carson Center, and the Deutsches Museum (Germany), convened by Heather Chappells (University of British Columbia), Vanessa Taylor (University of Greenwich), Frank Trentmann (Birkbeck College), Helmuth Trischler (Deutsches Museum), and Christof Mauch (Rachel Carson Center). By Vanessa Taylor…
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Snapshot: Celebrating Urban Green
On European Day of Parks, the RCC is celebrating working right next door to one of Munich’s generous, wooded city parks—the Leopoldpark. Staff and students of the University can make the most of the view from the LMU’s canteen and cafeteria, which look directly out onto the park. It is home to many birds, mammals, insects,…
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Student Research: Environmental (In)justice – The Case of Chevron-Texaco in Ecuador
By Camila Cabrera Ecuador, a small country located on the equator, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west, traversed by the Andes mountain range, and covered by part of the Amazon rainforest in the east, is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Nevertheless, as Nathalie Cely, the former Ecuadorian ambassador to…
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Uses of Environmental History: Paul Josephson
This is the third in a series of posts exploring the uses of environmental history. The series has been adapted from contributions to a roundtable forum published in the first issue of the new Journal for Ecological History, edited by Renmin University’s Center for Ecological History. “The Need for Public Environmental History” By Paul Josephson It is difficult to quantify, but…
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Munich’s Beautiful Botanical Garden
By Samantha Rothbart The Munich Botanical Garden may be a little sparse at the moment, but even without the vibrant green foliage that dominates the city in the summer, it is an impressive sight. You might expect the leafless branches to create an air of dejection. On the contrary, they serve to highlight the beautiful structure…
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Making Tracks: Lisa Pettibone
In the “Making Tracks” series, RCC fellows and alumni present their experiences in environmental humanities, retracing the paths that led them to the Rachel Carson Center. For more information, please click here. By Lisa Pettibone I have had to justify my academic path to many people in numerous contexts on two continents. Moving from a…
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Student Research: Pollinators – The New Buzzword?
“Pollinator Declines: Impacts on Biodiversity and Agriculture” By Stephanye Zarama-Alvarado Think of the evolution of life. Imagine how diverse species have blossomed since Precambrian times and how they fit together to create a delicate ecological balance on our planet. Though hominids have been in the natural world for millions of years, modern humans only began to evolve…
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Losing Home: The Yi People and Environment in the Liangshan Region
by Zhen Wang Liangshan (凉山) is a mountainous region of 60,423 square km2 that occupies much of the southern part of Sichuan province, on the border with Yunnan province. It has the largest population of ethnic Yi nationally, totaling nearly 50% of the 4.5 million inhabitants in 2010. In recognition of the large percentage of…
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From the Stable to the Table—What Do We Eat When We Eat Raw-Milk Cheese?
By Lena Thurn and Maria Fixemer The question of which cheese to buy is not simply a question about what to eat for lunch—at least not for the US cultural anthropologist Heather Paxson and other so-called post-Pasteurians who set a specific value on their food. Post-Pasteurians don’t believe that pasteurization—which means to heat treat raw…