Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
-
Toward a Beautiful Rural Life
by Zhen Wang Jenny Chio’s book A Landscape of Travel: The Work of Tourism in Rural Ethnic China attracted me because of its connection to my current research project at the Rachel Carson Center. One of the reasons for this is that we share the same research area—southwest China. My own research focuses on the…
-
Bookshelf: The Troubled History of Environmentalism
By Bob Wilson The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation by Adam Rome The Light-Green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000 by Michael Bess Seeing Green: The Use and Abuse of American Environmental Images by Finis Dunaway Why have Americans been unable or…
-
Bookshelf: “What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?” by Vinciane Despret, translated by Brett Buchanan
In this special “Bookshelf” post for Women in Translation month, RCC fellow Amanda Boetzkes reflects on Vinciane Despret’s recently published What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions? I cannot think of a more appropriate author to consider during Women in Translation month, than Belgian philosopher Vinciane Despret, whose work speaks to some…
-
Bookshelf: “Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity” by Timothy Mitchell
By Arnab Dey Tim Mitchell’s Rule of Experts has remained with me a long time, and continues to be an inspiration for my work and thinking. Focused on twentieth-century Egypt, Mitchell raises foundational questions about the purported globality of themes such as capitalism, technology, politics, ecology, and power. In doing so, the book opens up…
-
Bookshelf: “Empire of Cotton” by Sven Beckert
By Ernst Langthaler Among the books that have recently widened and deepened my historical knowledge the most is Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton. Drawing on a broad base of research in numerous archives and on a wealth of literature, the author follows the traces of cotton through the last millennia and across continents. He shows…
-
Bookshelf: Jens Kersten on Inwastement—Abfall in Umwelt und Gesellschaft
The Inwastement volume arose from the research cluster “Waste and Society” of the RCC together with LMU’s Center for Advanced Studies. Published in German by Transcript, the issue includes contributions from: Soraya Heuss-Aßbichler, Claudia R. Binder, Eveline Dürr, Gisela Grupe, Rüdiger Haum, Michael Jedelhauser, Jens Kersten, Roman Köster, Reinhold Leinfelder, Christof Mauch, Wolfram Mauser, Karen Pittel, Gerhard Rettenberger,…
-
“Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw”: Jiang Rong’s “Wolf Totem”
Post by Brenda Black Jiang Rong’s autobiographical novel Wolf Totem was one of the group reads for the Global Environment Summer Academy held at the Rachel Carson Center last August. It recounts the experiences of a Chinese college student, Chen Zhen (the author’s alter ego), sent to live among the nomadic herders of Inner Mongolia…