Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Snapshot: Lunchtime Colloquium
The RCC’s weekly lunchtime colloquium series is always a hub of activity at the center. Here people meet, greet, and discuss their interests over a buffet lunch before watching a presentation given by an RCC fellow or guest speaker. The talks often focus on the speaker’s most recent project or research interests. Each talk is…
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Student Research: Break Free 2016
“Ende Gelände†for the Fossil Fuel Industry By Alexander Gorski (Environmental Studies Certificate Program student) Over the first two weeks of May this year, a global network of organizations and individuals from six continents united for the Break Free 2016 campaign, taking action against the continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels. From Brazil to…
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Snapshot: Beach Litter in a Sustainable Exhibition
By Katrin Kleemann A few weeks ago, “Snapshot: Zero Waste?” featured an exhibition exploring global waste production. Today’s feature looks at what happens to that waste. As part of its Planet Oceans Initiative, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich hosts one of London’s first sustainable galleries: the “Environment Gallery.” It’s sustainable because all of the displays are made…
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Snapshot: Fueling Up
Last year, Strasbourg won the “Smart City†category at the EU-China Smart Mobility City Awards. In its devotion to sustainable mobility, the city has revitalized its bus system, implemented a car share system, and expanded its cycling network considerably; several innovative projects are currently underway.
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Snapshot: RCC Staff Trip to Nuremberg
“At Nuremberg, I had the same surreal feeling I often experience in my hometown of Gettysburg, where I am surrounded by land that marks one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the American Civil War. The sunshine and the bucolic beauty of the day insisted on evading the horrors contained in this space. 
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Snapshot: Zero Waste?
At the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History) in Paris, the third floor of La Grande Galerie de l’Évolution (the Great Gallery of Evolution) is dedicated to humans’ impact on the environment. This collection of garbage represents a meager portion of the waste we produce globally. The RCC’s latest Perspectives volume, A Future without Waste? Zero Waste in Theory…
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Snapshot: A Living, Breathing Thing
Living walls aren’t just a wonderful way to brighten up urban spaces—greening grey walls has benefits inside and out. Green walls help protect building façades, reduce noise, and make structures more energy efficient, and they improve biodiversity and outdoor air quality, and our well-being in general. Living walls and vertical gardens have become increasingly popular over the years—thanks to innovative and striking designs by people…
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Snapshot: “energie.wenden (energy.transitions)”
We need to transition towards more sustainable energy systems! But what is keeping us from making the necessary changes? Technology? Politics? Psychology? Following the successful exhibition on the Anthropocene, the Deutsches Museum and the RCC are once again teaming up for another large exhibition. This time, the title is “energie.wenden†(energy transitions) and it focuses…
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Snapshot: Mini Workshop on Sub-Saharan African History
Last week, the RCC hosted a group of African scholars, along with their mentors, to discuss and support proposals for a postdoctoral fellowship grant from the Volkswagen Foundation. In a three-day series of mini-workshops, the teams discussed their intended projects with RCC director Christof Mauch, RCC students and fellows. Also in attendance was current fellow…