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Salma Monani, Associate Professor Of Environmental Studies, Musselman Library, Salma Monani

Next Page

In this first Next Page column of 2017, Salma Monani, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, shares which films first ignited her passion for research in the environmental humanities – in particular, the intersections of cinema, environmental, and Indigenous studies; how her recent time as a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (Munich, Germany) reinforced this passion; suggested reads that range from science fiction and mystery to seminal works in ecocriticism; and which Netflix series she will dive into next.

Border Insecurity: Reading Transnational Environments In Jim Lynch’S Border Songs, Jenny Kerber

English and Film Studies Faculty Publications

This article applies an eco-critical approach to contemporary American fiction about the Canada-US border, examining Jim Lynch’s portrayal of the British Columbia-Washington borderlands in his 2009 novel Border Songs. It argues that studying transnational environmental actors in border texts—in this case, marijuana, human migrants, and migratory birds—helps illuminate the contingency of political boundaries, problems of scale, and discourses of risk and security in cross-border regions after 9/11. Further, it suggests that widening the analysis of trans-border activity to include environmental phenomena productively troubles concepts of nature and regional belonging in an era of climate change and economic globalization. Cet …

"God, Mother And Island Creek": The Story Of Holden Central School And The Emergence Of Nurturing Paternalism, Harley D. Walden

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The story of the community of Holden, West Virginia (Logan County), Island Creek Coal Company, and its model school (Holden Central School) offers a counternarrative to the dominant deficit-oriented narratives concerning Appalachian education. In particular, the progressive nature of Island Creek Coal Company led it to create a model coal camp community and a school that educated their employees’ children. The school operated from 1922 until 1970, when the combined elementary and junior high school closed its doors forever. Island Creek Coal Company both designed, supplied, and oversaw the daily operations of a benevolent community with all the modern amenities …

Development And Environmental Injustice In Malaysia: A Story Of Indigenous Resistance In Sarawak, May Tay '17

EnviroLab Asia

In 2008, the Federal Government of Malaysian announced an initiative to build 20,000 megawatts of mega dams along a 320km corridor in Sarawak. Named the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), the scheme would create one of five regional development corridors throughout Malaysia, and was part of the government’s strategy to make the state of Sarawak ‘developed’ by 2020 through industrialization and renewable energy development (Recoda). Of the mega dams planned for construction by 2020, three have been completed, with construction for the others underway and the construction process frequently delayed by resistance from local indigenous communities. Indigenous tribe members …

Hydropower, Oil Palm, And Sustainability, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

This reflection touches on the writer’s experiences during the EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip in early 2016 to Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore. The reflection involves two events: a visit to a blockade protesting the construction of a hydroelectric dam and a meeting with the sustainability department of Wilmar, one of the world’s leading palm oil producers. The first event comments on the tension between the need for renewable energy and the destruction of the natural environment and communities due to the particular energy generation technology chosen. This event highlighted the importance of understanding the societal constraints a technology is being installed …

Table Of Contents: Volume 1: Oil Palm In Southeast Asia: Culture, Politics, And Sustainability

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

Adaptation And Power, Elizabeth Weinlein '17

EnviroLab Asia

Academic knowledge of some of the inequities and injustices embedded in economic development was given greater depth and significance after the EnviroLab Asia clinic trip to Southeast Asia; the same was true result occurred after the group’s meeting with Dyack activists.

Narratives About Energy, Megaprojects, And The Ecology Of Tropical Rivers: The Baram River Dam Project, Marc Los Huertos

EnviroLab Asia

The conflict between development goals to build dams for hydroelectricity and indigenous peoples in Sarawak was set in motion in the 1970s. In spite of the potential ecological damage, hydroelectric development has been justified by developed and developing countries for decades. These impacts include changes in river geomorphology, water quality, and habitat value and access. Moreover, in the Bakun and Baram river watersheds, the Dayak people of Sarawak have poignantly demonstrated the socio-ecological disruption. For the time being, the construction of the Baram Dam has been halted.

Institutional Responses To Pressures For Sustainable Palm Oil, Stephen Marks, Justin Lauw '18, Shivang Mehta '19, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

As the two leading palm oil producing countries, Indonesia and Malaysia have come under external pressures to limit deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions related to land use conversion for oil palm cultivation. We examine various institutional frameworks that have emerged to mediate these pressures. These frameworks can be distinguished by their geographic scope—domestic, region, and global—as well as by the nature of control—private, non-profit, and governmental. The frameworks have taken the form of sustainability certification systems from non-profit organizations or governments, corporate sustainability policies, or the setting through global or bilateral negotiations of voluntary national targets for limiting deforestation or …

Introduction To German Ecocriticism In The Anthropocene, Caroline Schaumann, Heather I. Sullivan

Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research

How do we approach, read, discuss, and teach German literature in light of the transnational and global environmental problems and crises caused by human activities? In what way does the current geological era of the Anthropocene marked by traceable human impact across the globe lead us to reflect on the role and interconnectedness of human and non-human forces? Since human activities and human cultures have caused so many of the current ecological problems, how can scholars address broad-scale interdisciplinary problems with attention to both cultural and scientific knowledge? What is the role of the humanities in this inextricably nature-culture mix …

Indigenous People, Development And Environmental Justice: Narratives Of The Dayak People Of Sarawak, Malaysia, Elizabeth Weinlein '17

EnviroLab Asia

Focusing on the indigenous people of Sarawak, this article explores the authors learned biases as well as the dispelling of myths through hands on experiences in Malaysia. Over the period of a couple days, it becomes apparent that the indigenous people in Sarawak are not victims of systems of oppression, but survivors who continue to fight for their land rights and livelihoods.

From The Suburbs To The City: Seeking The Shalom Of An Inner City Neighborhood, Elias Soiles

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Journey Community Church, a five-year old white, suburban, college-educated, middle class church, moved into the Bell Hill neighborhood of Worcester, Massachusetts on July 1, 2015. This was a neighborhood of which Journey Church knew almost nothing and of which it seemingly had little in common. The Bell Hill neighborhood is poor, working class, culturally and ethnically diverse with whites comprising less than forty percent of the population. This project outlines the model of ministry that enabled Journey Church to begin to reach its neighborhood and contribute to its holistic flourishing. The biblical and theological review examined the role and nature …

Planet Superman: An Ecocritical Analysis Of The Man Of Steel From 1938-2017, Justin Hart Crary

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Planet Superman is a critical examination of the DC comic book superhero Superman as analyzed through an ecocritical lens. The primary argument is that, within the world of DC Comics, Superman is single-handedly capable of ending all of the Earth’s various ecological crises using his very existence as a solar battery or using his superhuman power to become a totalitarian despot that enforces the law through superior firepower. I calculate Superman’s greatest feat of energy output to prove how much solar energy is actively dormant within the Man of Steel. Using the several “versions” of Superman throughout his 79 year …

Just Research, Ki’Amber Thompson '18

EnviroLab Asia

The trip to Malaysia Borneo was an eye-opening experience that reinforced the need for researchers to listen to the indigenous peoples and to integrate their knowledge and understanding of place into any scientific, political, or policy analyses designed to restore the impact of deforestation and dam projects in the region.

Embodying Our Future Through Collaboration: The Change Is In The Doing, M Palmer, P White, S Wooltorton

Arts Papers and Journal Articles

Contributors to this special edition have agreed that we want a future of ecojustice and ecological sustainability. Our paper unpacks experiences of oppression within the context of middle class academic privilege, undertaking resistances and working, in relationship, learning to live more sustainably in the Year of Living Sustainably. In this writing we argue the case for activism in the academy and collaboratively build resilience towards more sustainable ways of being. By co-writing and analysing fictionalised stories we demonstrate how contemporary universities contribute to the unsustainability of social and ecological systems. This paper presents a love story grounded in poststructural ecofeminist …

The Salvation Of The Cosmos: Benedict Xvi's Eschatology And Its Relevance For The Current Ecological Crisis, Jeremiah Vallery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has elements of a cosmic eschatology embedded in his theological oeuvre that have not heretofore been extensively systematized. This dissertation fills this gap by contextualizing Benedict’s cosmic eschatology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, examining his Logos theology and his view on the fate of the cosmos, exploring his cosmic liturgy, and evaluating his concept of human ecology and pneumatology. Benedict insufficiently links his cosmic eschatology to his papal teachings on the environment; however, his cosmic eschatology can be developed in fruitful ways. After providing a thorough articulation of Benedict’s cosmic eschatology, I offer my own …

Cripping East Los Angeles: Enabling Environmental Justice In Helena María Viramontes’S Their Dogs Came With Them, Jina B. Kim

English Language and Literature: Faculty Books

Chapter 18 of section three: Food Justice in Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory edited by Stacy Alaimo

Although scholars in the environmental humanities have been exploring the dichotomy between "wild" and "built" environments for several years, few have focused on the field of disability studies, a discipline that enlists the contingency between environments and bodies as a foundation of its scholarship. On the other hand, scholars in disability studies have demonstrated the ways in which the built environment privileges some bodies and minds over others, yet they have rarely examined the ways in which toxic …

The Traffic Of Native American Women, Nasrin M. Chaudhry

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract available.

Unfinished: A Memoir, Bryan Edward Hebeler

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Rituals Reproducing Race: African American Women's Feminine Hygiene Practices, Shared Experiences, And Power, Angela K. Guy-Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of the role African American women’s feminine hygiene practices, namely vaginal douching, plays in the creation and reproduction of race. Compared to their white and Latina counterparts, African American women are the most likely to engage in this practice. Vaginal douching is associated with myriad reproductive and sexual health problems. These problems include but are not limited to recurrent yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, disrupting healthy vaginal microbiomes, and spontaneous preterm birth; of which African American women experience disproportionately. Although racial differences in vaginal douching are well documented, little is known about the impetus for African …

The Crucible Of Orthodoxy And Orthopraxy: Examining The Intersections Of Social Justice, Moral Development And Theology, Eydie Dyke Shypulski

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to better understand the relationship between moral development, theology and social justice within a Christian context. An apparent disconnect exists regarding how people of faith apply personal morals and theological perspectives when positioning themselves with regard to public policy and social justice issues. The researcher sought to extract information that would have implications for professional social practice, social work ethical and practice pedagogy, for faith-based institutions of higher learning and for the broader Christian community. A theological reflection included a brief examination of Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophies of moral and ethical development followed by …

All Our Relations: Native Struggles For Land And Life, By Winona Laduke, Joseph A. P. Wilson

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Book review by Joseph A.P. Wilson.

LaDuke, W. (1999). All our relations: Native struggles for land and life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press; Minneapolis, MN: Honor the Earth.

Dispatches, Sunny Spillane

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

The Veil Of Ignorance In Rawlsian Theory, Jeppe Von Platz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

As part of his effort to answer the question "What is the best conception of justice for a democratic society?" philosopher John Rawls constructed a thought experience called the original position. In the original position, representativs of members of society choose principles of justice for society in light of limited interests and with limited information. Situated behind the veil of ignorance, the parties in the original position have no knowledge about particular facts that could lead them to prefer principles of justice partial to those they represent. The veil of ignorance is thus an important part of Rawls's argument …

The Nature Of Identity: Ecofeminism, Women's Poetry, And Reclaiming Power Through The Recognition Of Parallel Oppressions, Jessica Dailey

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The presence of Ecofeminism in women's poetry can empower women today who engage in feminist activism. The systematic oppression experienced by women is paralleled by the destruction inflicted upon nature (including animals). By recognizing these as similar, women can reclaim their connection to nature (while rejecting the idea that this is essentialist); through this connection women as readers find an escape from patriarchy, the male gaze, and sexual violence in Ecofeminist poetry.

Ideas About Nature In American Art And Visual Culture, Mark Graham

Faculty Publications

The stories we tell ourselves about nature deeply influence how we attempt to preserve, use, or restore nature as well as practices of art and art education that are concerned with ecological issues (Cronon 1996). Landscapes are culture before they are nature (Schama 1996). Yet, our ideas about wilderness, nature, landscape, and sustainability are fraught with paradox and debate. For example, Darwin’s fundamental assertions about the human relationship to nature continue to spark theological, political and educational controversies. Some environmentalists caution that our consumerist economy will destroy the planet and that we need to return to a less sophisticated technology …

Accumulating Risk: Environmental Justice And The History Of Capitalism In Detroit, 1880-2015, Josiah John Rector

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is an environmental history of Detroit, Michigan from the 19th century to the present. Recent scholarship on the history of capitalism has largely ignored the problem of environmental inequality, and the negative externalities of economic growth. In contrast, studies of the environmental justice movement have richly documented race, class, and gender inequalities in environmental risk exposure. However, they have neglected the relationship between the development of the environmental justice movement and the restructuring of American capitalism since the 1970s, including deindustrialization and the shift to neoliberalism. Bringing these fields together, this dissertation connects Detroit’s long-term economic transformation to …

Oceans Of Space, Stephanie Steinbrecher '16

EnviroLab Asia

"Oceans of Space" relates my observations of the 2016 EnviroLab Asia Clinic Trip to Singapore and Sarawak, Malaysia. In this meditation, the concept of space serves as a lens to examine assumptions of geopolitical, historical, and philosophical positioning—regionally and globally. At the center of my inquiry is EnviroLab's connection to the Dayak communities in Baram, Sarawak. This region is experiencing dramatic social and ecological change as a result of industrial development. By triangulating my subjective impressions of this space, various knowledge systems, and the qualitative data EnviroLab gathered in Southeast Asia, I aim to untangle some paradoxes that complicate the …

Caminero-Santangelo, Byron. Different Shades Of Green: African Literature, Environmental Justice And Political Ecology. Charlottesville, Va: University Of Virginia Press, 2014, 214 Pp., Anthony Kola-Olusanya

Journal of Retracing Africa

No abstract provided.

Restoring Relationship: How The Methodologies Of Wangari Maathai And The Green Belt Movement In Post-Colonial Kenya Achieve Environmental Healing And Women's Empowerment, Casey L. Wagner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The effects of the colonial project in Kenya created multi-faceted damages to the land and indigenous people-groups. Using the lens of ecofeminism, this study examines the undergirding structures that produce systems such as colonization that oppress and destroy land, people, and other beings. By highlighting the experience of the Kikuyu people within the Kenyan colonial program, the innovative and ingenious response of Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement proves to be a relevant and effective counter to women's disempowerment and environmental devastation in a post-colonial nation. The approach of the Green Belt Movement offers a unique and accessible method for empowering …