ASLE EcoCast

Our conversation with Professor Angus discusses her brand-new book Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography. As the title suggests, Angus connects photography with the materials that make it possible: bitumen, silver, platinum, iron, uranium, and rare earth elements. Each has been used at various points in photography’s history to physically produce an image, and Siobhan tells us how photography doesn’t exist without the mine and extraction. If, in Rob Nixon’s words, capitalism “extract[s] in order to abstract”, then Camera Geologica is undermining this abstraction by enmeshing ...

Our conversation with Professor Goode explores her recent book Agrotopias: An American Literary History of Sustainability. Two recent phrases form the impetus of her book: “We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Unless Black Lives Matter” and “Climate Change Is also a Racial Justice Problem”. Goode traces these back to the enigmatic Thomas Jefferson to illuminate and enmesh the supposedly protoecological American past with its racist and eugenic histories by analyzing agrotopias. She defines agrotopias as “seemingly ideal worlds of agrarian stability and productive labor” ...

This episode is a goodbye and a hello. Brandon Galm, the creator of EcoCast in 2020 and co-host since its inception, is now stepping away from the podcast to make more time for his new roles at Cloud County Community College in North Central Kansas. We say hello to Alex Tischer, a recent graduate from Wright State in English who is now applying to English Ph.D. programs. Brandon and Alex are on either side of the Ph.D. process, and this episode discusses the ...

Many apologies for the whale pun in the title, but Brandon can never resist. This month he and Lindsay chat with Jamie L. Jones, author of Rendered Obsolete: Energy Culture and the Afterlife of US Whaling. Jamie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We discuss the fascinating history of whaling in the United States, ranging from the environmentally destructive to the culturally traditional. Moby Dick may or may not be discussed; you’ll have ...

This month’s episode was recorded live throughout the ASLE/AESS Conference in July 2023 in Portland. Brandon had the opportunity to set up a table at the conference and the five wonderful people who you’re getting to listen to on this episode stopped by and shared their work with him (and now you!)

Guest List:

In this episode, Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Laura Wright and Jessica Cory to discuss their recent edited collection Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place. The episode kicks off with some gleeful sharing of a love for cryptids, but then gets into the heart of what it means to be from Appalachia, the common misconceptions of the area, and the important role those perceptions play in understanding the environmental issues facing the region.

Episode recorded May 15, 2023.

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

EcoCast heads back to the ocean again as its theme, this month to discuss Ryan Poll’s recent book Aquaman and the War Against Oceans: Comics Activism and Allegory in the Anthropocene. He and Brandon examine the character’s evolution, the comics’ role in an oceanic imaginary, and how Aquaman comics can help bring attention to the issues facing the environment.

Episode recorded March 20, 2023.

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

For more on Ryan:

Aquaman and the War Against Oceans: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496225856/

Twitter: @RyanPoll2

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ASLE EcoCast:

If you have ...

This month Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Christina Gerhardt, Associate Professor and Founder of the Environmental Humanities initiative at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and the Editor-in-Chief of ASLE’s journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. We discuss Christina’s recently released book (it comes out the same day as this episode!) Sea Change: Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, which challenges us to re-consider the idea of mapping in a world increasingly affected by global warming.

This month Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Joshua Trey Barnett, assistant professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, to discuss his recent book Mourning in the Anthropocene: Ecological Grief and Earthly Coexistence. We talk about extinction, what it means to grieve nature, and even get a little personal with the idea of naming and loss of pets.

Joshua’s Info:

Twitter: @joshuatbarnett

Email: barnett@psu.edu

Joshua’s Book Recommendations:

Shimmer: Flying Fox Exuberance in Worlds of Peril: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-shimmer.html

Ecologies of Harm: Rhetorics of ...

This month’s episode is no slog. It’s no slug, either. This month is all about the wonderful world of snails! Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Thom Van Dooren, Deputy Director at the Sydney Environment Institute and an Associate Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Sydney, Australia. Thom joins EcoCast to discuss his most recent book, A World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a Time of Extinction.

Thom’s Info:

https://www.thomvandooren.org/

A World ...