Greenhouse Environmental Humanities Book Talks

Kjetil Fallan, Professor of Design History at University of Oslo (Norway), discussed his book  Ecological by Design: A History from Scandinavia  (The MIT Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 7 November 2022. Scandinavia is famous for its design culture, and for its pioneering efforts toward a sustainable future. In  Ecological by Design , Kjetil...

Joshua Trey Barnett, Assistant Professor in Communication Arts & Sciences at Penn State (USA), discussed his book  Mourning in the Anthropocene: Ecological Grief and Earthly Coexistence  (Michigan State University Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 31 October 2022. Enormous ecological losses and profound planetary transformations mean that ours...

Thomas Zeller, Associate professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park (USA) discussed his book  Consuming Landscapes: What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters  (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) on the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 24 October 2022. What we see through our windshields reflects ideas about our national identity, consumeri...

Historian Rohan Lloyd discussed his book  Saving the Reef: The Human Story Behind One of Australia’s Greatest Environmental Treasures  (University of Queensland Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book series on Monday, 17 October 2022. While in the past Australians wrestled with what the Reef is, today they are struggling to reconcile what it will be. To do this, we need to un...

Sophie Chao, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney (Australia), discussed her book  In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua  (Duke University Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 26 September 2022. With  In the Shadow of the Palms , Sophie...

James Morton Turner, professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College (USA), discussed his book  Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future  (University of Washington Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk on Monday, 19 September 2022. To achieve fossil fuel independence, few technologies are more important than batteries. Used for power...

Jenny Price, public writer and artist, discussed her book  Stop Saving the Planet! An Environmentalist Manifesto  (WW Norton, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 12 September 2022. We’ve been “saving the planet” for decades!…And environmental crises just get worse. All this hybrid driving and LEED building and carbon trading seems to accomplish little to no...

Erik Nordman, Professor of Natural Resources Management and Adjunct Professor of Economics at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, discussed his book  The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom: Essential Lessons for Collective Action  (Island Press, 2021) on Monday, 5 September 2022 in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series. In the 1970s, the accepted environmental thinking was...

Stephanie Rutherford, associate professor in the School of the Environment at Trent University (Canada), discussed her book  Villain, Vermin, Icon, Kin: Wolves and the Making of Canada   (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 29 August 2022. A wolf’s howl is felt in the body. Frightening and compelling, incomprehensible or ent...

To start of the 2022-23 academic year, the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series hosted Jarrod Hore, postdoctoral fellow with the New Earth Histories Research Program, University of New South Wales, Sydney, to discuss his new book  Visions of Nature: How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism  (University of California Press, 2022) on Monday, 22 August 2022. Visions of Nat...

Matthew Kelly, professor of modern history at Northumbria University (UK), joined the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 20 June 2022 to discuss his book  The Women Who Saved The English Countryside  (Yale University Press, 2022). In Britain today, a mosaic of regulations protects the natural environment and guarantees public access to green spaces. But this was not al...

Writer and historian Megan Kate Nelson discussed her book  Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America  (Scribner, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 13 June 2022. Each year nearly four million people visit Yellowstone National Park—one of the most popular of all national parks—but few know the fascinating and complex histori...

Laura J. Martin, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, discussed her book  Wild By Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration  (Harvard University Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 30 May 2022. Environmental restoration is a global pursuit and a major political concern. Governments, nonprofits, private corporations, and...

Keith Pluymers, Assistant Professor of History at Illinois State University, discussed his book  No Wood, No Kingdom: Political Ecology in the English Atlantic  (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 23 May 2022. In early modern England, wood scarcity was a widespread concern. Royal officials, artisans, and common people expr...

Laura Smith, Lecturer in Human Geography at University of Exeter (UK), presented her book  Ecological Restoration and the U.S. Nature and Environmental Writing Tradition: A Rewilding of American Letters  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 16 May 2022. This book presents a critical history of the intersections between American environme...

Matthew Seibert, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia (USA), discussed his edited volume  Atlas of Material Worlds: Mapping the Agency of Matter  (Routledge, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 9 May 2022. Atlas of Material Worlds  is a highly designed narrative atlas illustrating the agency of nonliving materials...

Jonathan Saha, Associate Professor in South Asian History at Durham University (UK), discussed his book  Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar  (Cambridge University Press, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 2 May 2022. Animals were vital to the British colonization of Myanmar. In this pathbreaking history of British imperialism in Myanmar fro...

Victor Seow, Assistant Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University (USA), presented his book  Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia  (University of Chicago Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 25 April 2022. The coal-mining town of Fushun in China’s Northeast is home to a monstrous open pit. First excavated in the early...

Liam Lewis, Lecturer in French at the University of Liverpool (UK), presented his book  Animal Soundscapes in Anglo-Norman Texts  (D. S. Brewer, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 4 April 2022. The barks, hoots and howls of animals and birds pierce through the experience of medieval texts. In captivating episodes of communication between species, a mandrak...

Bart Elmore, Associate Professor at Ohio State University (USA), discussed his book  Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future  (W. W. Norton, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 28 March 2022. Monsanto, a St. Louis chemical firm that became the world’s largest maker of genetically engineered seeds, merged with German pharma-biotech giant Bayer in 201...

Michael Guida, Research Associate at University of Sussex, presented his book  Listening to British Nature: Wartime, Radio, and Modern Life, 1914-1945   (Oxford University Press, 2022) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 21 March 2022. Listening to British Nature: Wartime, Radio, and Modern Life, 1914-1945  reveals for the first time how the sounds and rhyth...

Daniel Barber, Associate Professor at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, discussed his book  Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning  (Princeton University Press, 2020) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 14 March 2022. Modern Architecture and Climate  explores how leading architects of the twentieth century in...

Catherine Oliver, Research Associate at University of Cambridge (UK), joined the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk on Monday, 7 March 2022 to discuss her book  Veganism, Archives, and Animals: Geographies of a Multispecies World  (Routledge 2021). This book explores the growing significance of veganism. It brings together important theoretical and empirical insights to offer a historic...

Laurence Talairach, Professor of English at University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès and associate researcher at the Alexandre Koyré Centre for the History of Science and Technology (France), talked about her book  Animals, Museum Culture and Children’s Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Curious Beasties   (Palgrave Macmillian, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on...

Jonathan E. Robins, associate professor of history at Michigan Technological University, discussed his book  Oil Palm: A Global History  (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) in the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk series on Monday, 14 February 2022. Oil palms are ubiquitous—grown in nearly every tropical country, they supply the world with more edible fat than any other plant an...