ASLE EcoCast

Join us this month as adventure unfolds,

When dragons and dangers to climate are told.

How teaching can help us to bring changes soon,

Before it’s too late and the future is doomed.

Our guests are Heather Duncan and Eleanor Gold, who explain how Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs), including Dungeons and Dragons, can be used in classroom settings. These games can help students imagine and play through positive environmental futures in a space that highlights creativity, adaptation, and critical thinking.

If you ...

This special episode features the audio recording from the first episode of ASLE’s Spotlight Series on “Human/Non-Human Relations,” held on March 19, 2021.

Co-hosts: Laura Barbas-Rhoden and Heather Swan

Panelists: Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Patricia Vieira, Sarah Giragosian, and Callum Angus.

For more information on ASLE’s Spotlight Series, including registering for upcoming virtual events, visit: https://www.asle.org/stay-informed/asle-news/spotlight-series-2021/

In this month’s episode, Jemma and Brandon sit down with Alex Menrisky, lecturer in English and Communication at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, to discuss his recent book Wild Abandon: American Literature and the Identity Politics of Ecology. What follows is a fascinating conversation on the historical ties of environmentalism to psychoanalysis and counterculture movements.

We apologize for the audio/technical issues in this month’s episode. We did our best to clean them up, but there are a few moments where you might hear some slight crackles, ...

This episode, Jemma and Brandon are joined by Craig Santos Perez, poet and English professor at the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa. They discuss Craig’s newest book, Habitat Threshold, and the ways his poetry addresses ecological concerns and their impacts on Pacific Island people and communities.

For more on Craig and his work:

Website: http://craigsantosperez.com/

Twitter: @craigsperez

If you have an idea for a future episode of ASLE’s EcoCast, use our new submission form to propose a topic.

Email: ASLE.EcoCast@gmail.com

Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast or @BeGalm (Brandon) ...

With the start of a new semester for most of us, it felt like the perfect time to release a great conversation on climate change pedagogy (this episode’s Root Word!) with Sarah Jaquette Ray and Stephen Siperstein. Sarah is professor and head of the Environmental Studies BA program at Humboldt State University, and Stephen lives at the Environmental Immersion Program at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut where he teaches courses in environmental humanities and interdisciplinary environmental research methods, and directs the school’s Writing ...

ASLE EcoCast kicks off the new year with an episode talking with Kristin J. Jacobson, Professor of American Literature at Stockton University to discuss her recent book The American Adrenaline Narrative. Jemma gets the adventure rolling with the Root Words on, well, adventure, and what follows is a thrilling conversation on the connections between these narratives, environmental consciousness, and toxic masculinity.

Find Kristin on Twitter: @drkj

The American Adrenaline Narrative is available through the University of Georgia Press

If you ...

In this month’s episode, Jemma and Brandon talk with Jason-Allen Paisant, poet and Director of the Institute for Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies at the University of Leeds, and use the connection between writing and trees to discuss his poetry that engages with environmental concerns, time, and Black identity.

His first full length book of poems, Thinking with Trees, will be released June 2021.

Find Jason on Twitter: @jallenpaisant

If you have an idea for a future episode of ASLE’s EcoCast, ...

In this month’s episode, Jemma and Brandon sit down with Thomas Rashad Easley, Hip Hop artist and Assistant Dean of Community and Inclusion at the Yale School of the Environment. He uses what he calls “Hip Hop Forestry” as a means to creatively address issues of environmental justice and inclusion—both within and outside of academia.

Find Easley at his Website: rashadeasley.com or on Twitter/Instagram: @RashadEas

If you have an idea for a future episode of ASLE’s EcoCast, send us ...

This month Jemma and Brandon sit down (virtually, of course) with scholar, fiction writer, and poet Cheryl J. Fish to discuss her most recent book of poetry, Crater & Tower. This collection explores questions of trauma, memory, and environmental justice by considering the 1980 Mt. St. Helen’s eruption in conjunction with September 11, 2001.

Cheryl’s Website: http://www.cheryljfish.com/home

Twitter: @CherylJoyFish

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Una Becoming Penguin. Image Credit: Marina Zurkow

This month Jemma and Brandon have a wonderful conversation with Una Chaudhuri, Collegiate Professor and Professor of English, Drama, and Environmental Studies at New York University, and the Director of NYU’s XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement. They discuss Una’s work in the early development of eco-theatre as a field of study, the ways that theatre is uniquely suited to engage with environmental concerns, and her ongoing Dear Climate project.

More information about Dear Climate can ...