Environmental Studies Commons^™

Artist's Corner, Josée Landry Sirois

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Two artworks: Les forces de la nature and Voir l’intuition

Fighting The Slow Agony Of The World, Émilise Lessard-Therrien

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

The author is the mother of Solène and deputy with Québec Solidaire in Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue at the Québec National Assembly.

Translated by Lucas Zabotin.

The Great Round Table: Writing The Land, Isabelle Courteau, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui, Jean Sioui, J. R. Léveillé, Rénée Olander, Peter Schulman, Virginia Pesemapeo Bordeleau

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Transcript from discussion at Olivieri bookstore in Montreal on June 1, 2018. Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui moderated the discussion.

Isabelle Courteau, Director of La Maison de la Poésie de Montréal, provided an introduction. Translated by Peter Schulman.

Mass Tourism And The Arctic: The Impacts Of Globalization On Peripheral Communities, Talor Stone

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph of Introduction] In the last 20 years, the number of tourists venturing into remote parts of the Arctic has increased dramatically. This rapid growth has shifted the region from a niche expedition destination reserved for hardy explorers to a popular bucket list item luring tourists with the promise of an exotic adventure to be experienced en masse. Although the phenomenon of mass tourism in the Arctic is relatively new, it fits into broader themes of globalization in which today far more people are aware of distant places, interested in global travel, and are able to afford both the …

Writing On Occupied Land, Joëlle Papillon

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] Reading Indigenous poets such as Joséphine Bacon (Innu) and Jean Sioui (Wendat), one is struck by how marvel before “nature” is intertwined with loss and mourning. The experience of loss derives from the interrelated ills of territorial dispossession and environmental destruction caused by settlers’ violent relationship to the land. When reading their verse, we are reminded that today’s Indigenous poets are writing on occupied land. All of us on Turtle Island are writing on occupied land, of course, but it remains easy for settlers to delude ourselves into thinking the land is either everyone’s or rightfully ours. We …

Unearthing Montreal’S Past In Hochelaga, Terre Des Âmes, Marla Epp

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] In his 2017 film, Hochelaga, terre des âmes (Hochelaga, Land of Souls), Québécois filmmaker François Girard delves into the complex history of Montreal. When a sinkhole appears in a football stadium, the site becomes an archaeological dig, led by a Mohawk graduate student at the Université de Montréal. The film tracks the progress of the dig, unearthing layers of history and revealing the stories of the generations of people who lived on the land, including the Indigenous peoples who lived there first.1

Editors’ Note, Peter Schulman, Josh A. Weinstein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Editors' note to volume 3 of Green Humanities (2021).

Cover: Green Humanities, Vol. 3, 2021

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Cover image, including masthead and editorial board, for volume 3 of Green Humanities (2021).

Water In Native American Spirituality: Liquid Life—Blood Of The Earth And Life Of The Community, June-Ann Greeley

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] Water: The life force of all creation, the generative dynamism of existence. Long before scientific experimentation and quantifiable instrumentation verified the facts, human beings have perceived and understood water to be the essence of all life, both material and spiritual. From the beginnings of recorded history and even before, across the expanse of human settlement and migration, indigenous as well as extraneous religions and spiritual traditions have celebrated water as the primordial source: water was sacred before it was material and water took on for multitudes of generations until even today an expansive inclusivity that scanned the literal …

Taiwan And The Pacific Islands: Exploring The Green/Blue Possibilities, Fabrizio Bozzato

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] The Pacific Island nations face unique developmental challenges and vulnerability issues that, in some cases, threaten their very existence. The Islands’ political and civil society leaders have recently embraced a vision of inclusive and sustainable development for remodeling their countries’ ‘brown economies’ into people-centered green/blue economies fostering poverty eradication. However, moving to a new socio-economic paradigm is a goal that the Pacific Island countries cannot achieve alone. They need reliable partners with green-tech capability and innovative aid policies. Taiwan is potentially the ideal partner for building a new framework for Pacific islanders and enabling them to reach for …

Science And Food Fictions: Agricultural Technologies, The Evolution Of The Modern Industrial Diet, And Calls For A Food Revolution, Tracey Daniels-Lerberg

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] Individual food choices are culturally and historically contingent practices that arise through an amalgamation of often hidden political, scientific, and economic policies that shape desire and influence access. Food, like all other man-made mechanisms of control and authority, has been used “as a political tool for […] subjugating (either economically or politically) other nations” according to William A. Dando, a professor at the University of North Dakota, who in 1975 urged American agricultural officials not to use food as “a weapon” against starving nations, something he feared was eminently possible given the economic and political climate of agricultural …

Solving Our Bread Problem: Gnostic Trends In Environmentalist Thought And Janisse Ray As Solution, Jeremy Elliott

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] One would be hard pressed to find a book more significant to the modern American environmentalist movement than John Muir’s seminal My First Summer in the Sierra. It gathered support for Muir’s fledgling Sierra Club and raised Muir’s national profile as he influenced Teddy Roosevelt on the creation of the National Park Service, thus serving a key role in perhaps the two most influential environmental organizations in the 20th century. Muir’s work is interesting, though, for another reason, as well: the way that Muir deals with the reality of his own physical body. Muir’s body is almost completely …

Vagabond: The Trans-Species Ecologies Of Plant/Human Encounters, Hubert Alain

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First paragraph] The opening scene of the acclaimed documentary King Corn (2007) shows Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis, main protagonists, learning that corn constitutes one of the main carbon molecules of their hair. Segue to introduce the crop’s omnipresence in North American processed foods, principally used as sweetener, starch and animal feeds, the almost banal scientific fact presented in this scene is mesmerizing, providing a somewhat embodied support to the popular environmentalist saying “you are what you eat,” or to Donna Haraway’s poetic understanding of bodies and species as “full of their own others, full of messmates, of companions” (Haraway …

Language And Power In Social Movements: Hearing All The Voices In Food System Advocacy Narratives, Dianna Winslow

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[From first paragraph] Everyone must eat. It is this immediate and personal connection to food which drives public and scholarly interest in the complex narratives emerging in what is becoming known as the “food movement”—activism on a global scale that is challenging how the industrialized production, distribution and consumption of food is affecting environmental conditions, food sovereignty and security, human health and wellness, and cultural identities. As the number of food advocacy groups promoting different, yet overlapping, public concerns continues to increase, so does the flow of language used by these groups to shape collective identities and political stances, which …

Contemporary Art Exhibitions As Places Of Learning About Reflexive Food System Localization, Andrew Bieler

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[From first paragraph] This paper describes the role of socially engaged art practices in opening up our pedagogical imaginations to foster reflexive and creative approaches to building the local food movement. These contemporary artistic engagements with local food or ‘food system localization’ are in the genre of what has been called social practice artwork or, in other words, art practices that focus less on the production of a singular aesthetic object and more on the relational and experiential aspects of participatory interaction in a creative process (e.g., Kester; Finkerpearl). In this context, I examine social practice artworks that create experimental …

Call For Papers, Peter Schulman, Josh A. Weinstein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Call for Papers for volume 2 of Green Humanities (2017).

Editor's Note, Peter Schulman, Josh A. Weinstein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Editors' note to volume 2 of Green Humanities (2017).

Cover: Green Humanities, Vol. 2, 2017

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Cover image, including masthead and editorial board, for volume 2 of Green Humanities (2017).

Call For Papers, Peter Schulman, Josh A. Weinstein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Call for Papers for the inaugural issue, volume 1 of Green Humanities (2015).

The Creative Arts, Environmental Crises & Well-Being In Globalized Place: Methodological Considerations For An Ecocritical Mode Of Practice-Based Research, Brad Warren, Patrick West

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[From Introduction] Problems pertaining to environmental and ecological well-being are increasingly having effects on a global scale; climate change is the most obvious example of this, but not the only one (the pollution of the oceans and transnational light pollution are others). Our paper argues that individual and community well-being in general, which is always directly or indirectly related to specifically environmental or ecological well-being at the global scale, can be augmented through the introduction of Creative Arts activities and products into local communities.