Welcome to The Understory, PPEH's bi-weekly environmental humanities digest! In a world of continued remote engagement, we're growing a digital community space to feature work in EH, share information, and most importantly, to expand conversation in all areas of the environmental humanities. Please feel welcome to contribute your events, related work, and recommendations by emailing Angela at faranda@sas.upenn.edu!
We are pleased to celebrate this volume with an evening of robust environmental humanities discussion on Thursday, April 8th at 6pm.
Presentations by contributors and supporters of the text will be followed by a moderated Q+A for the general audience. This event is free and open to the public.
Writing Botanical Stories is a hands-on workshop designed to connect people with plants, led by Miranda Mote, PPEH Graduate Fellow and PhD Candidate, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, and Chantel White, Archaeobotanical Teaching Specialist at the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials, Penn Museum.
It will teach people how to archive plants as an herbarium, print and write stories with plants. The workshop will teach analogue methods of nature printing as a part of a scientific and creative literary project. The program is open to botanists, K–12 teachers, students, and writers interested in botany and literacy. No experience with printing or book making necessary. Register at this page.
The ASLE Spotlight series features moderated conversations with ASLE members who have produced new critical and creative work in the environmental humanities. Episodes follow a theme, and highlight publicly engaged scholarship.
Featured guests include Steve Mentz, Ocean, Craig Santos Perez, Habitat Threshhold, Brian Russell Roberts,Borderwaters: Amid the Archipelagic States of America, and Tori Bush, The Gulf South: An Anthology of Environmental Writing.
On Saturday 27 March from 21:00 CET, The Smog Event brings together artists, theorists and film in an online program about smog, initiating a new series of Sonic Acts transmissions under the banner of Night Air. The first event of the series includes presentations by PPEH Artist in Residence Amy Balkin and anthropologist Timothy K Choy. The program will be moderated by Harshavardhan Bhat and audience members are invited to join in the conversations via a live-chat Q&A.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT
The Philadelphia Area Environmental Justice Curriculum Hub is a living archive of resources for connecting middle school, high school, and college students with sites of environmental justice advocacy in and around Philadelphia. The Hub welcomes students, advocates, educators, and artists to contribute any curricular materials, writing, film, interviews, oral histories, and art in the pursuit of racial and environmental justice in the Philadelphia area. Visit the call for submissions here. Updated project information is posted at this Field Notes link.
The Canopy is an environmental humanities podcast from the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities! Each episode’s segments
explore how the environmental humanities are being put into practice in sites around the planet and articulated across different cultures and languages at global universities;
spotlight new work in the greater Philadelphia region
showcase student work at PPEH
invite you to listen in on conversations with PPEH’s guest scholars, artists, and community partners
The Canopy’s Managing Producer is Angela Faranda (faranda@sas.upenn.edu). Be in touch if you have an idea for a podcast segment and with other queries.
The 2021 Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Digital Convening invites creative and critical engagements around the broad but timely theme of EmergencE/Y. Within a present scoured by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, by intersecting social and ecological crises, including white supremacy and settler colonialist logics and frameworks, how can environmental humanists and ecocritics imagine, conceptualize, theorize, and represent these compounding crises? The conference will take place virtually, from July 26 – August 6, with a combination of asynchronous and synchronous events. Accepted presenters will be required to provide pre-recorded talks by June 22, 2021.More information on the Call for Papers is linked here. Deadline April 1, 2021.
Penn Sustainability has summer and academic year work-study internship opportunities available! See the links below for specifications and ways to apply:
EJ in PA, April 6, 2021 EJ in PA (Dickinson College) aims to educate and empower residents regarding environmental justice issues throughout Pennsylvania. The goals for the event are to encourage conversation and create connection among community members to identify actions and outcomes that will be supported through resources and networking after the event through a group of EJ community hubs.Register at this form.
This semester Penn's Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies department is offering rich programming for their year of Environmental Feminisms. Please visit their robust events calendar here.
The EJP Summit will be held 100% online & registration is FREE! This EJP Summit will feature renowned environmental and climate scholars and advocates from the state of Oregon and abroad.
New Publication from Dr. Rebecca Bushnell, University of Pennsylvania Professor of English
The Marvels of the World: An Anthology of Nature Writing Before 1700 is a collection of texts for a broad audience of readers interested in learning more about the premodern natural world. This anthology aims to broaden and complicate the story of premodern nature writing in the West and widen the scope to medieval literature and culture as well as to classical texts, so that readers can follow the evolution of conflicting concepts over the sweep of two millennia. Penn Press is linked here.
Do you have what it takes to take on climate change? Register for the PCV Prize, Penn’s first ever climate pitch competition. Get a chance to pitch your ideas to solve some of the most pressing environmental issues. On top of prizes, you will have the opportunity to connect with other passionate entrepreneurs, be mentored by climate leaders, and network with leading venture capitalists. So what are you waiting for? Register Here!
Environmental History Week is an international celebration of environmental history, organized by environmental historians of all stripes to foster scholarly collaboration, academic research, teaching and public awareness of environmental history.Environmental History Week is April 19-26, 2021.