Hello and welcome to the December newsletter of morethanhumanworlds! This month, I'm sharing three new publications in HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, The Conversation and Forest Cover on human-plant activism in West Papua, Indigenous peoples' rights in Indonesia, and gender and resistance in the plantation sector. In addition, you'll find below a series of thought-provoking publications exploring ecological justice and environmental history in an age of global crisis, human-wildlife relations and conflict, and geographies of extinction. In this month's Morethanhuman Matters interview, I speak with Daniel Ruiz-Serna, a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia University and the University of British Columbia, Canada, whose research explores human and non-human relationships among Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities from the Colombian Pacific coast. If you'd like to share resources, news, or anything else related to morethanhumanworlds, please send them to me for inclusion in the January newsletter. Enjoy and thank you for subscribing to morethanhumanworlds! |
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NEW PUBLICATIONS Read an article on vegetal teleontologies in West Papua, published by HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. In this article, I draw from the plant turn and ontological turn to examine how Indigenous Papuan activists strategically deploy and perform the ontology of oil palm in their land rights negotiations with state and corporate actors. Read an op-ed on Indigenous peoples' rights in Indonesia, published in The Conversation and co-written with Indonesian journalist Fidelis Eka Satriastantis. In this op-ed, we examine the advances and struggles faced by Indigenous peoples in securing their rights to lands and livelihoods since the country's independence. |
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Read an essay on gender, resistance, and plantation expansion in West Papua, published in The Global Forest Coalition's September Forest Cover issue and co-written with Rachel Smolker. In this essay, we reflect on how deforestation and agribusiness developments are experienced, conceptualized, and contested by Indigenous Marind women in rural Merauke. This special issue was launched on the International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. To listen to the accompanying webinar, click here. |
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“I learned that the animacy of the forest is not just a question of people imposing their beliefs onto the world. Rather, the vibrancy of this place arises out of the relations of reciprocity and care that people engage in.” Daniel Ruiz-Serna |
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MORETHANHUMAN MATTERS This week, morethanhuman matters interviews Daniel Ruiz-Serna, a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia University and the University of British Columbia, Canada. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has been working with Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities from the Colombian Pacific coast, an important biodiversity hotspot. Daniel’s main interests are human and non-human relationships and the always porous borders between nature and culture. In his postdoctoral research, Daniel is exploring the politics of peace, justice, and reconciliation between ethnic communities and environments comprised of non-human, sentient beings. | | |
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TOP FOUR READINGS Davis, Janae, Alex A. Moulton, Levi Van Sant, and Bryan Williams. 2019. “Anthropocene, Capitalocene, ... Plantationocene?: A Manifesto for Ecological Justice in an Age of Global Crises.” Geography Compass 13 (e12438): 1–15. On the powerful challenge posed by Black geographic and ecological work to the ongoing colonial–racial legacies of the plantation, prompting reconsideration of white supremacy, capitalist development, and (mis)characterizations of what it means to be human. Bradshaw, Corey J.A., and Paul R. Ehrlich. 2015. Killing the Koala and Poisoning the Prairie: Australia, America, and the Environment. Chicago, I.L.: University of Chicago Press. A spirited exploration of the ways in which the United States and Australia can learn from their shared problems and combine their most successful solutions in order to find and develop new resources, lower energy consumption and waste, and grapple with the dynamic effects of climate change. |
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Holmes, Katie, Andrea Gaynor, and Ruth Morgan. 2020. “Doing Environmental History in Urgent Times.” History Australia 17 (2): 230–51. A conversation between three environmental historians who respond to key questions about environmental history and the climate crisis - the skills they bring to understanding it, the stories they have found to move us forward and their thoughts about the interface between history, science, and activism. Symons, Kate, and Ben Garlick. 2020. “Introduction: Tracing Geographies of Extinction.” Environmental Humanities 12 (1): 288–95. A special issue that seeks to bring extinction studies into closer conversation with approaches in traditions such as human geography and political ecology to shed light on the place-specific nature of extinction, including spaces and places that are deemed to be extinct; the geographies through which extinction processes unfold; and the geographies that are left after extinction. |
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