Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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Making Tracks: Paul Sutter
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 Paul Sutter There was nothing about my childhood that inclined me towards the environmental humanities—except, perhaps, the entire context in which I…
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Student Research: Permaculture – Alternative Agriculture, part 2
Last year, students of the RCC Environmental Studies Certificate Program had the opportunity to attend a three-day workshop with Jochen Koller, Diploma Permaculture-Designer and Director of the Forschungsinstitut für Permakultur und Transition (FIPT). Students gained an insight into the ethics and design principles of permaculture, the diverse spheres of activity, and the practical possibilities. In this short…
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Making Tracks: Franklin Ginn
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 Franklin Ginn Failure lies behind the trappings of academic success: words unwritten, words sunk without trace, applications rejected, snubs both subtle and…
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Paradigm Shifts in Environmental Thinking: Autonomous Nature by Carolyn Merchant
by Yan Gao Carolyn Merchant’s book Autonomous Nature traces paradigmatic shifts in environmental thinking from a long-term perspective. Derived from her ever-enduring interest in and perpetual investigations of chaos and complexity theories, Merchant probes into the roots and evolution of the terms natura naturans (“Nature naturing,†or nature creating, evolving, and changing) and natura naturata…
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Environmental Knowledge and Environmental Politics in the “Post-Truth†Era
by Jonathan Clapperton and Liza Piper Nearly one year has passed since we wrote the introduction to the recently released RCC Perspectives volume titled “Environmental Knowledge, Environmental Politics: Case Studies from Canada and Western Europe.†At the time, we wrote in an atmosphere of environmental and progressive social activist optimism: the Paris Agreement had just…
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“Key Debates in Environmental Anthropologyâ€â€”A Report on the Inaugural Conference of the Environmental Anthropology Working Group
by Oliver Liebig On 26th and 27th September 2016, the Environmental Anthropology Working Group (a subgroup of the German Anthropological Association) met at the Rachel Carson Center for their inaugural conference. The meeting was convened to discuss the key debates and standpoints in environmental anthropology, as well as its diverse engagements with current environmental problems,…
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Doktorandentag 2016
By Anja Rieser and Ivan Vilovic With topics ranging from earthquakes to the League of Nations, greenhouse gases to photography, in fields as diverse as politics, law, geography, and art, the doctoral students at the Rachel Carson Center are a truly interdisciplinary group. On 7 November they convened for a “Doktorandentag,†a day of presentations…
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Worldview: Taking the Venice Architecture Biennale as an Example
by Jeroen Oomen This post was first published on 21 November 2016 on the ENHANCE ITN website. “What is the environmental humanities?†is a question that typically pops up whenever I care to explain that ENHANCE, the doctoral training network I am part of, stands for Environmental Humanities for a Concerned Europe. And in all…
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Marriage Trees
“My Tree in Another’s Backyard†By Anna Leah Tabios Hillebrecht The first half of September found me in Santa Fe, Argentina, as part of the academic exchange on Transatlantic Perspectives on the Rights of Nature, cosponsored by BayLat and the Rachel Carson Center. It was my first time in South America and I was determined to…