1st Edition

The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities

Edited By Ursula Heise, Jon Christensen, Michelle Niemann Copyright 2017
    508 Pages
    by Routledge

    506 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities provides a comprehensive, transnational, and interdisciplinary map to the field, offering a broad overview of its founding principles while providing insight into exciting new directions for future scholarship. Articulating the significance of humanistic perspectives for our collective social engagement with ecological crises, the volume explores the potential of the environmental humanities for organizing humanistic research, opening up new forms of interdisciplinarity, and shaping public debate and policies on environmental issues.



    Sections cover:







    • The Anthropocene and the Domestication of Earth





    • Posthumanism and Multispecies Communities





    • Inequality and Environmental Justice 





    • Decline and Resilience: Environmental Narratives, History, and Memory





    • Environmental Arts, Media, and Technologies





    • The State of the Environmental Humanities



    The first of its kind, this companion covers essential issues and themes, necessarily crossing disciplines within the humanities and with the social and natural sciences. Exploring how the environmental humanities contribute to policy and action concerning some of the key intellectual, social, and environmental challenges of our times, the chapters offer an ideal guide to this rapidly developing field.

    Introduction:

    Planet, Species, Justice—and the Stories We Tell about Them Ursula K. Heise

    Part 1: The Anthropocene and the Domestication of Earth

    1. The Anthropocene: Love It or Leave It Dale Jamieson

    2. Domestication, Domesticated Landscapes, and Tropical Natures Susanna B. Hecht

    3. "They Carry Life in Their Hair": Domestication and the African Diaspora Judith A. Carney

    4. Domestication in a Post-Industrial World Libby Robin

    5. Meals in the Age of Toxic Environments Yuki Masami

    6. Hybrid Aversion: Wolves, Dogs, and the Humans Who Love to Keep Them Apart Emma Marris

    7. Techno-Conservation in the Anthropocene: What Does It Mean to Save a Species? Ronald Sandler

    8. Coloring Climates: Imagining a Geoengineered World Bronislaw Szerszynski

    9. Utopia's Afterlife in the Anthropocene Anahid Nersessian

    Part 2: Posthumanism and Multispecies Communities

    10. Renaissance Selfhood and Shakespeare's Comedy of the Commons Robert N. Watson

    11. Multispecies Epidemiology and the Viral Subject Genese Marie Sodikoff

    12. Encountering a More-than-Human World: Ethos and the Arts of Witness Deborah Bird Rose and Thom van Dooren

    13. Loving the Native: Invasive Species and the Cultural Politics of Flourishing Jessica R. Cattelino

    14. Artifacts and Habitats Dolly Jørgensen

    15. Interspecies Diplomacy in Anthropocenic Waters: Performing an Ocean-Oriented Ontology Una Chaudhuri

    16. The Anthropocene at Sea: Temporality, Paradox, Compression Stacy Alaimo

    Part 3: Inequality and Environmental Justice

    17. Turning Over a New Leaf: Fanonian Humanism and Environmental Justice Jennifer Wenzel

    18. Action-Research and Environmental Justice: Lessons from Guatemala’s Chixoy Dam Barbara Rose Johnston

    19. Farming as Speculative Activity: The Ecological Basis of Farmers' Suicides in India Akhil Gupta

    20. Ecological Security for Whom? The Politics of Flood Alleviation and Urban Environmental Justice in Jakarta, Indonesia Helga Leitner, Emma Colven, and Eric Sheppard

    21. Our Ancestors’ Dystopia Now: Indigenous Conservation and the Anthropocene Kyle Powys Whyte

    22. Collected Things with Names like Mother Corn: Native North American Speculative Fiction and Film Joni Adamson

    23. The Stone Guests: Buen Vivir and Popular Environmentalisms in the Andes and Amazonia Jorge Marcone

    Part 4: Decline and Resilience: Environmental Narratives, History, and Memory

    24. Play It Again, Sam: Decline and Finishing in Environmental Narratives Richard White

    25. Hubris and Humility in Environmental Thought Michelle Niemann

    26. Losing Primeval Forests: Degradation Narratives in South Asia Kathleen D. Morrison

    27. Multidirectional Eco-Memory in an Era of Extinction: Colonial Whaling and Indigenous Dispossession in Kim Scott's That Deadman Dance          Rosanne Kennedy

    28. The Caribbean's Agonizing Seashores: Tourism Resorts, Art, and the Future of the Region's Coastlines Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert

    29. Bear Down: Resilience and Multispecies Ethology Brett Buchanan

    Part 5: Environmental Arts, Media, and Technologies

    30. Contemporary Environmental Art James Nisbet

    31. Slow Food, Low Tech: Environmental Narratives of Agribusiness and Its Alternatives Allison Carruth

    32. Mattress Story: On Thing Power, Waste Management Rhetoric, and Francisco de Pájaro’s Trash Art Maite Zubiaurre

    33. Touching the Senses: Environments and Technologies at the Movies Alexa Weik von Mossner

    34. Climate, Design, and the Status of the Human: Obstacles and Opportunities for Architectural Scholarship in the Environmental Humanities Daniel A. Barber

    35. Climate Visualizations: Making Data Experiential Heather Houser

    36. Digital ? Environmental : Humanities Stéfan Sinclair and Stephanie Posthumus

    37. From The Xenotext  Christian Bök

    Part 6: The State of the Environmental Humanities

    38. The Body and Environmental History in the Anthropocene Linda Nash

    39. Material Ecocriticism and the Petro-Text Heather I. Sullivan

    40. Fossil Freedoms: The Politics of Emancipation and the End of Oil Hannes Bergthaller

    41. Scaling the Planetary Humanities: Environmental Globalization and the Arctic Sverker Sörlin

    42. Some "F" Words for the Environmental Humanities: Feralities, Feminisms, Futurities Catriona Sandilands

    43. Biocities: Urban Ecology and the Cultural Imagination Jon Christensen and Ursula K. Heise

    44. Environmental Humanities: Notes Towards a Summary for Policymakers Greg Garrard

    45. The Humanities after the Anthropocene Stephanie LeMenager

    Biography

    Ursula K. Heise is Professor of English and a faculty member of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.



    Jon Christensen is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the Department of History, and the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.



    Michelle Niemann is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Humanities and English at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.