Environmental Archives

Catalog description

This course explores both archives in the environment and the environment in archives. First, we will consider how records inscribed into geological, chemical, and biological patterns in the environment have been translated into environmental histories. We will explore the potential of considering environmental fluxes and more-than-human actors as makers, keepers and curators of records. Additionally, we will seek to understand more-than-human experiences of time, identify factors influencing the timing of biological processes, and evaluate how environmental records have been used to infer shifts in biodiversity, variations in the composition of the atmosphere, and other signatures of global change. Subsequently, we will explore methods and theories underlying the curation of components of the environment for preservation in archival collections, museums, herbaria, and “living collections.” Through site visits, we will consider how natural historians navigate tensions between dynamic ecologies and preservation to produce environmental collections. We will interrogate theories underlying decisions related to which components of the environment are selected for preservation and how these choices enable particular environmental narratives. Students will engage with an existing collection and curate a collection of their own (rocks, seeds, soils, pollen, etc.) to explore these and other themes. Throughout the semester, we will engage with a range of texts from the natural sciences and environmental humanities, including works by Astrid Schrader, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Michelle Bastian, Heather Davis, Caitlin Desilvey, and others.