Best Ecocriticism Podcasts (2024)

1
Dr Nikhil Arora (Astrophysics) – Comparing cosmological simulations with observations of galaxies to better understand their formation and evolution.

3h ago

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Dr Arora’s aim has been to uncover the intricate dynamics and evolutionary pathways of galaxies within our Universe. Through his research, he offers a distinct perspective on these cosmic entities, equipped with the expertise to navigate both theoretical frameworks and observational data. The careful comparison of telescopic observations with theor…

1
Philipp Demgenski, "Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City" (U Michigan Press, 2024) 1:20:29

1h ago1:20:29

1:20:29

In Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City (U Michigan Press, 2024), Philipp Demgenski examines the complexities and changing sociopolitical dynamics of urban renewal in contemporary China. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic fieldwork in the northeastern Chinese city of Qingdao, the book tells the story of the …

1
Charis Enns and Brock Bersaglio, "Settler Ecologies: The Enduring Nature of Settler Colonialism in Kenya" (U Toronto Press, 2024) 34:53

5m ago34:53

34:53

Settler Ecologies: The Enduring Nature of Settler Colonialism in Kenya (University of Toronto Press, 2024) tells the story of how settler colonialism becomes memorialized and lives on through ecological relations. Drawing on eight years of research in Laikipia, Kenya, Charis Enns and Brock Bersaglio use immersive methods to reveal how animals and p…

1
Nicholas Terpstra, "Senses of Space in the Early Modern World" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 1:00:42

23m ago1:00:42

1:00:42

How did early moderns experience sense and space? How did the expanding cultural, political, and social horizons of the period emerge out of those experiences and further shape them? Senses of Space in the Early Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 2024) by Dr. Nicholas Terpstra takes an approach that is both global expansive and locally roote…

1
Robin Visser, "Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan" (Columbia UP, 2023) 1:11:28

13h ago1:11:28

1:11:28

Indigenous knowledge of local ecosystems often challenges settler-colonial cosmologies that naturalize resource extraction and the relocation of nomadic, hunting, foraging, or fishing peoples. Questioning Borders: Ecoliteratures of China and Taiwan (Columbia UP, 2023) explores recent ecoliterature by Han and non-Han Indigenous writers of China and …

1
Tibeb Debele (Rehabilitation Science) – Beyond repair: The process of social inclusion of women after Obstetric fistula surgical repair in Ethiopia

2d ago

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Obstetric fistula is a birth-related injury that results when women go through prolonged and obstructed labor. As a result, some women experience stigma and exclusion from their families and the community. This study focuses on understanding how these women are included in their families and communities after receiving surgical correction. For upco…

1
Ep. 45: Dr. Alan Pascuzzi, Bronze Casting and "Becoming Michelangelo." 48:27

3d ago48:27

48:27

I am joined by the Florence based artist and art historian Dr. Alan Pascuzzi for a thrilling interview about his career as an artist following the techniques of the Renaissance masters. We first discuss the process of becoming a sculptor and painter in the Renaissance techniques. He walks us through his technical process, looking closely at his rec…

1
Joshua Trey Barnett, "Mourning in the Anthropocene: Ecological Grief and Earthly Coexistence" (Michigan State UP, 2022) 50:48

3d ago50:48

50:48

Enormous ecological losses and profound planetary transformations mean that ours is a time to grieve beyond the human. Yet, Joshua Trey Barnett argues in this eloquent and urgent book, our capacity to grieve for more-than-human others is neither natural nor inevitable. Weaving together personal narratives, theoretical meditations, and insightful re…

1
Annaliese Jacobs Claydon, "Arctic Circles and Imperial Knowledge: The Franklin Family, Indigenous Intermediaries, and the Politics of Truth" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 1:24:38

4d ago1:24:38

1:24:38

In 1845 an expedition led by Sir John Franklin vanished in the Canadian Arctic. The enduring obsession with the Franklin mystery, and in particular Inuit information about its fate, is partly due to the ways in which information was circulated in these imperial spaces. Arctic Circles and Imperial Knowledge: The Franklin Family, Indigenous Intermedi…

1
Grazia Ting Deng, "Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy" (Princeton UP, 2024) 41:23

5d ago41:23

41:23

Why and how local coffee bars in Italy--those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces--have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas since the Great Recession of 2008? Italians regard espresso as a quintessentially Italian cultural product--so much so that Italy has applied to add Italian espresso to UNESCO's official list of intangib…

1
Cristiana Strava, "Precarious Modernities: Assembling State, Space and Society on the Urban Margins in Morocco" (Bloomsbury, 2021) 1:29:18

7d ago1:29:18

1:29:18

What does living “precariously” mean in Casablanca? In 2014 it meant being labeled tcharmil (seeming to endanger public order) and swept up by the police, if you were an unemployed young man sporting a banda haircut and gathering with your mates on a street corner. Cristiana Strava witnessed this and other neglected aspects of urban vulnerability w…

1
April Saleem (Pathology & Molecular Medicine) – Investigating the role of the gut microbiota in depressive disorders

10d ago

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Depressive disorders effect over 310 million people worldwide, reduce quality of life, co-occur with other physical disorders, and increase risks of premature death. Recent studies have suggested a link between the microbes residing in the human gut and the central nervous system, suggesting a bidirectional interaction called the microbiota-gut-bra…

1
Andres Rodriguez, "Frontier Fieldwork: Building a Nation in China's Borderlands, 1919-45" (U British Columbia Press, 2022) 1:04:19

13d ago1:04:19

1:04:19

In 1911, as China was beset with challenges, a new generation of scholars considered a new problem: what to do with former imperial borders? How could China’s frontiers be considered part of the new nation? In Frontier Fieldwork: Building a Nation in China’s Borderlands 1919–45 (UBC Press, 2022), Andres Rodriguez looks at how students, travellers, …

1
Dominic Boyer, "No More Fossils" (U Minnesota Press, 2023) 59:18

16d ago59:18

59:18

Our hosts, Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel, sat down with Dominic Boyer to talk about his new book, No More Fossils, which appeared just last year (2023) from the University of Minnesota's "Forerunners" series. We talked at length about his book, its gestation in basic questions about how to divest from fossil energy and fossil culture, and the …

1
Greg Jarrell, "Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods" (Fortress Press, 2024) 49:08

16d ago49:08

49:08

Greg Jarrell's book Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods (Fortress Press, 2024) uncovers how race, geography, policy, and religion have created haunted landscapes in Charlotte, North Carolina, and throughout the United States. How do we value our lands, livelihoods, and communities? How does our theology inform ou…

1
Dakota Urban (Classics & Archeology) – Transcultural language in Diasporic Jewish Inscriptions

21d ago

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The diasporic (Jewish) experience is characterized by the dynamics of acculturation and enculturation; a twofold process entailing a degree of integration into the majority culture and at the same time a strong retention of the Jewish identity. The primary purpose of Dakota’s thesis is to demonstrate how diasporic Jewish communities in the Graeco-R…

1
Ep. 44: Frank Nero Part 2: San Martino del Vescovo 46:07

21d ago46:07

46:07

Join me in conversation with Frank Nero, who takes us on a journey to a hidden gem in Florence, San Martino del Vescovo. This oratory serves as a fascinating case study of the intersections between Medici power and art patronage, as well as offering a glimpse into the everyday of Florentine life in the Quattrocento. The oratory frescoes depict scen…

1
Nell Freudenberger, "The Limits" (Knopf, 2024) 54:39

17d ago54:39

54:39

The most thrilling work yet from the best-selling, prize-winning author of The Newlyweds and Lost and Wanted, a stunning new novel set in French Polynesia and New York City about three characters who undergo massive transformations over the course of a single year. From Mo'orea, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti, a French biologist obs…

1
Kris Butler, "Drink Maps in Victorian Britain" (Bodleian Library, 2024) 28:11

19d ago28:11

28:11

What is a ‘drink map’? It may sound like a pub guide, yet it actually refers to a type of late nineteenth-century British map designed specifically to shock and shame people into drinking less. Drink Maps in Victorian Britain (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2024) by Kris Butler explores how drink maps of particular cities were published in an attempt…

1
India’s Waste Problem: A Discussion with Pamela Das 30:42

21d ago30:42

30:42

How is India tackling its persistent wage management problems? And, are new infrastructural solutions the way forward? In this episode, Kenneth Bo Nielsen talks to Pamela Das about the new infrastructures that are increasingly being put in place to help Indian cities confront the problem of waste and how to handle it. Estimate suggests that by 2025…

1
Riley Cooper (MASc, Electrical & Computer Engineering) – Data-Driven Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for an Autonomous Surface Vessel

23d ago

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How to improve the autonomy of a robotic boat. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat webpage on Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies & Postdoctoral Affairs websiteBy CFRC.ca Podcast Network

1
Rachel S. Gross, "Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America" (Yale UP, 2024) 36:39

24d ago36:39

36:39

Rachel S. Gross's Shopping All the Ways to the Woods (Yale University Press, 2024) tells the fascinating history of the profitable paradox of the American outdoor experience: visiting nature first requires shopping No escape to nature is complete without a trip to an outdoor recreational store or a browse through online offerings. This is the irony…

1
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson et al., "Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change" (U Minnesota Press, 2023) 48:05

27d ago48:05

48:05

There is a growing consensus that environmental narratives can help catalyze the social change necessary to address today's environmental crises; however, surprisingly little is known about their impact and effectiveness. In Empirical Ecocriticism, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder combine an en…

1
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson et al., "Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change" (U Minnesota Press, 2023) 48:05

27d ago48:05

48:05

There is a growing consensus that environmental narratives can help catalyze the social change necessary to address today's environmental crises; however, surprisingly little is known about their impact and effectiveness. In Empirical Ecocriticism, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder combine an en…

1
Sofia Skebo and Isaac Emon (Translational Medicine) – Pulmonary Hypertension, what is it?

30d ago

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Isaac is investigating the role of CHIP mutations and inflammation in pulmonary arterial hypertension, while Sofia is examining the impact of BMPR-II loss on blood vessel growth in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Two different angles, but it is still in relation to pulmonary arterial hypertension. For upcoming interviews check out the Grad Chat we…

1
Ep.43: Frank Nero Part 1: Teaching Renaissance Art in Florence, Italy 46:31

1M ago46:31

46:31

It is with great pleasure that I welcome Frank Nero to the podcast. Nero is an art historian, award-winning educator, and former director of Florida State University Florence. He specializes in on-site lectures, having taught and inspired thousands of students during his career, myself included. The first part of this interview departs from our typ…

1
Charlie Hertzog Young, "Spinning Out: Climate Change, Mental Health and Fighting for a Better Future" (Footnote Press, 2023) 1:23:33

1M ago1:23:33

1:23:33

Charlie Hertzog Young became a climate activist in his early teens. His journey led him onto airport runways and into the halls of power, but also to a serious mental health breakdown. He had to rebuild himself physically and psychologically, before focusing his efforts on collective mental recovery in response to a planet in crisis. Spinning Out: …

1
Ruth A. Morgan, "Climate Change and International History: Climate Diplomacy in the Global North and South Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 1:06:00

1M ago1:06:00

1:06:00

Exploring how climate change has configured the international arena since the 1950s, Climate Change and International History: Negotiating Science, Global Change, and Environmental Justice (Bloomsbury, 2024) by Dr. Ruth A. Morgan reveals the ways that climate change emerged and evolved as an international problem, and how states, scientists and non…

1
Travis Rieder, "Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices" (Dutton, 2024) 37:33

1M ago37:33

37:33

In a world of often confusing and terrifying global problems, how should we make choices in our everyday lives? Does anything on the individual level really make a difference? In Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices (Dutton, 2024), Travis Rieder tackles the moral philosophy puzzles that bedevil us. He explores vital et…

1
Mary Johnson (English) – Ecocritical approaches to children’s literature

1M ago

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Mary is interested in exploring intersections of girlhood and wild spaces in “Golden Age” (1865-1926) children’s literature. In particular, I want to consider how relationships with wild spaces (re)configure awareness of the body, especially when contextualized with the ED (disordered eating) rhetoric that continues to be quietly pervasive across c…

1
Yolanda Ariadne Collins, "Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield" (U California Press, 2024) 42:14

1M ago42:14

42:14

Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield (U California Press, 2024) questions the effectiveness of market-based policies that govern forests in the interest of mitigating climate change. Yolanda Ariadne Collins interrogates the most ambitious global plan to incentivize people away from deforesting acti…

1
Yolanda Ariadne Collins, "Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield" (U California Press, 2024) 42:14

1M ago42:14

42:14

Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield (U California Press, 2024) questions the effectiveness of market-based policies that govern forests in the interest of mitigating climate change. Yolanda Ariadne Collins interrogates the most ambitious global plan to incentivize people away from deforesting acti…

1
David E. Gilbert, "Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography" (U California Press, 2024) 32:59

1M ago32:59

32:59

Two decades ago, a group of Indonesian agricultural workers began occupying the agribusiness plantation near their homes. In the years since, members of this remarkable movement have reclaimed collective control of their land and cultivated diverse agricultural forests on it, repairing the damage done over nearly a century of abuse. Countering Disp…

1
Flora Lu and Emily Murai, "Critical Campus Sustainabilities: Bridging Social Justice and the Environment in Higher Education" (Springer, 2023) 52:48

1M ago52:48

52:48

In response to student demands reflecting the urgency of societal and ecological problems, universities are making a burgeoning effort to infuse environmental sustainability efforts with social justice. In this edited volume, we extend calls for higher education leaders to revamp programming, pedagogy, and research that problematically reproduce do…

1
Flora Lu and Emily Murai, "Critical Campus Sustainabilities: Bridging Social Justice and the Environment in Higher Education" (Springer, 2023) 52:48

1M ago52:48

52:48

In response to student demands reflecting the urgency of societal and ecological problems, universities are making a burgeoning effort to infuse environmental sustainability efforts with social justice. In this edited volume, we extend calls for higher education leaders to revamp programming, pedagogy, and research that problematically reproduce do…

1
Mara Albrecht and Alke Jenss, "The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence: Histories, Rhythms and Ruptures" (Manchester UP, 2023) 1:06:26

1M ago1:06:26

1:06:26

The Spatiality and Temporality of Urban Violence: Histories, Rhythms and Ruptures (Manchester UP, 2023) asks how the city, with its spatial and temporal configuration and its rhythms, produces and shapes violence, both in terms of the built environment, and through particular 'urban' social relations. The book builds on the insight that violence it…

1
Benjamin J. Pauli, "Flint Fights Back: Environmental Justice and Democracy in the Flint Water Crisis" (MIT Press, 2019) 38:59

1M ago38:59

38:59

Originally published in 2019, Benjamin Pauli’s book, Flint Fights Back offers lasting insights into one of the most important drinking water-caused public health crises of American history. In this 2024 interview Pauli shares some explanations from the book but also offers his insights, in this year of the 10th anniversary of the Flint Water Crisis…

1
Hsuan L. Hsu, "Air Conditioning" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 44:14

1M ago44:14

44:14

Air conditioning aspires to be unnoticed. Yet, by manipulating the air around us, it quietly conditions the baseline conditions of our physical, mental, and emotional experience. From offices and libraries to contemporary art museums and shopping malls, climate control systems shore up the fantasy of a comfortable, self-contained body that does not…

1
Christy Spackman, "The Taste of Water: Sensory Perception and the Making of an Industrialized Beverage" (U California Press, 2023) 56:20

1M ago56:20

56:20

Have you ever wondered why your tap water tastes the way it does? The Taste of Water: Sensory Perception and the Making of an Industrialized Beverage (U California Press, 2023) explores the increasing erasure of tastes from drinking water over the twentieth century. It asks how dramatic changes in municipal water treatment have altered consumers’ a…

1
Shamus Tobin (MSc, Astronomy) – Investigating Annular Rings in Young Protostellar Disks

1M ago

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During star formation, gas and dust that goes into forming a new star also go to forming an equatorial disk of material known as protostellar disks, these are where planets form. Young disks (<1Myr), as opposed to their older cousins, have only recently been able to be studied in detail thanks to recent advancements in ground based observing facili…

1
Mike Duggan, "All Mapped Out: How Maps Shape Us" (Reaktion Books, 2024) 47:08

1M ago47:08

47:08

Maps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out: How Maps Shape Us (Reaktion, 2024) by Dr. Mike Duggan is an exploration of how maps impact our lives on social and cultural levels. This book takes readers on a journey through the fascinating history of maps, from ancient cave paintings and stone carvings to the digital i…

1
Ep. 42: The Followers of Raphael Part 2: Giovanni da Udine, feat. Esme Garlake 32:47

2M ago32:47

32:47

Join me in the continuation of my conversation with ecocritical art historian and climate activist Esme Garlake. In the second part of our interview, we discuss the works of Raphael's pupil, Giovanni da Udine. Giovanni not only had an intense fascination with accurately depicting the natural world, which we discuss via his drawings, but had a subst…

1
Cristina Brito, "Humans and Aquatic Animals in Early Modern America and Africa" (Amsterdam UP, 2023) 36:55

2M ago36:55

36:55

Cristina Brito's book Humans and Aquatic Animals in Early Modern America and Africa (Amsterdam University Press, 2024) deals with peoples' practices, perceptions, emotions and feelings towards aquatic animals, their ecosystems and nature on the early modern Atlantic coasts by addressing exploitation, use, fear, empathy, otherness, and indifference …

1
Sara J. Grossman, "Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy" (Duke UP, 2023) 41:29

2M ago41:29

41:29

In Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy (Duke UP, 2023), Sara J. Grossman explores how environmental data collection has been central to the larger project of settler colonialism in the United States. She draws on an extensive archive of historical and meteorological data spanning two centur…

1
Sara J. Grossman, "Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy" (Duke UP, 2023) 41:29

2M ago41:29

41:29

In Immeasurable Weather: Meteorological Data and Settler Colonialism from 1820 to Hurricane Sandy (Duke UP, 2023), Sara J. Grossman explores how environmental data collection has been central to the larger project of settler colonialism in the United States. She draws on an extensive archive of historical and meteorological data spanning two centur…

1
The Taste of Water: A Conversation with Christy Spackman 1:10:08

2M ago1:10:08

1:10:08

After WAY too long a hiatus, Peoples & Things is back! GET EXCITED!! In this episode, host Lee Vinsel interviews Christy Spackman, Assistant Professor of Art/Science with a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering at Arizona State University, about her recent book, The Ta…

1
Sarah Keyes, "American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland Trail" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) 1:10:20

2M ago1:10:20

1:10:20

The Overland Trail into the American West is one of the most culturally recognizable symbols of the American past: white covered wagons traversing the plains, filled with heroic pioneers embodying the nation's manifest destiny. In American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland Trail (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023), University of Nev…

1
Isabella Alexander, "Copyright and Cartography: History, Law, and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge" (Bloomsbury, 2023) 43:06

2M ago43:06

43:06

Isabella Alexander's book Copyright and Cartography: History, Law, and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge (Bloomsbury, 2023) explores the intertwined histories of mapmaking and copyright law in Britain from the early modern period up to World War 1, focusing chiefly on the 18th and 19th centuries. Taking a multidisciplinary approach and maki…

1
Ep. 41: The Followers of Raphael Part 1: Ecocritical Art History and Giulio Romano, feat. Esme Garlake 32:31

2M ago32:31

32:31

Join me in conversation in two parts with Esme Garlake, an ecocritical art historian and climate activist who centers her research on the interaction between the artist and the natural world. We are talking about two artists who were trained under Raphael, Giulio Romano and Giovanni da Udine. How do animals manifest in their works, and what does it…

1
Language Makes the Place 54:30

2M ago54:30

54:30

Ingrid Piller speaks with Adam Jaworski about his research in language and mobility. Adam is best known for his work on “linguascaping” – how languages, or bits of languages, are used to stylize a place. A welcome sign may index a tourist destination, artistic arrangements of word blocks like “love”, “peace”, or “joy” may index consumption and leis…

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