Field Notes
Welcome to Field Notes, PPEH's collection of interviews, essays, and reflections from our community. Here, you will find a record of our ongoing conversations and observations on various topics within the environmental humanities.
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My Climate Story 2024 — A Year of Growth
June 27, 2024
2024 was a year of growth and impact for My Climate Story (MCS). -
MCS Highlight: Community Shares Handwritten Climate Stories for Earth Day
June 3, 2024
As part of the Public Environmental Humanities class taught by Professor Bethany Wiggin in Spring 2024, Faith Bochert (UPenn, W ‘24) organized a storytelling booth at the annual Earth Week festival hosted by Penn Environmental Group, GreenFest. -
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Meet the Ecotopian Toolmakers: Q+A with Bobby Haskell
April 30, 2024
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Ecotopian Tools for the Academy: "FARM: Food, Agriculture and Regional Land Management”
April 29, 2024
Welcome to the third and final installment in our series of student proposed “Ecotopian Tools for the Academy!” -
Meet the Ecotopian Toolmakers: Q+A with e+i Studio
April 22, 2024
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Meet the 2024 Ecotopian Toolmakers!
April 3, 2024
We couldn’t be more excited to introduce the 2024 Ecotopian Toolmakers for Multispecies Flourishing! -
Ecotopian Tools for the Academy: "Meatless Mondays in Penn’s Dining Halls"
March 27, 2024
Welcome to the second installment in our series of student proposed “Ecotopian Tools for the Academy!” -
Ecotopian Tools for the Academy: “Environmental Injustice and the Philadelphia School District” Course
March 4, 2024
The University of Pennsylvania is the largest private property owner in the city of Philadelphia, The University has also been the recipient of criticism for contributing to the gentrification of the West Philadelphia neighborhood and for not paying PILOTS. This is the primary change community members are asking for and the most impactful way to contribute to meaningful change. -
Cli-Fi Review — Third Time's a Charm: The Evolution of Dune’s Environmental Message Across Film Adaptations
March 1, 2024
The ecology of Dune is a vital force created through Frank Herbert’s complex world-building; however, the complexities of the Dune universe are exactly what rendered the novel seemingly unadaptable into a successful film version. -
Climate Stories on Film at Paul Robeson High School
February 9, 2024
As part of her Public Research Internship with My Climate Story in 2022-23, Christy Choo directed a short documentary capturing the Climate Stories of teachers and students at Paul Robeson High School in West Philadelphia. -
Plants, Soils, and Multispecies Commons at Morris Arboretum & Gardens: An Interview with Bryan Thompson-Nowak
January 29, 2024
In conjunction with this year's call for "Ecotopian Tools for Multispecies Flourishing,” Bryan Thompson-Nowak, Director of Education at Morris talks about the foundation of this year’s theme— soil— and how Morris works to be a steward of and partner with the earth under our feet. -
Get to Know Our 2024 Ecotopian Toolkit Jury
January 24, 2024
Our 2024 call for "Ecotopian Tools for Multispecies Flourishing" invites artists and designers of all kinds to introduce “ecotopian” tools that might be used by visitors and inhabitants of Morris Arboretum & Gardens to support diverse, multi-species communities, including humans, amidst t -
Open Call: 2024 Morris + PPEH Ecotopian Tools for Multispecies Flourishing
January 23, 2024
In cooperation with the Morris Arboretum & Gardens,PPEH invites you to participate in a project to create Ecotopian Tools for Multispecies Flourishing. Successful proposals for Ecotopian Tools will be explored in designer-led public workshops at Morris in spring 2024 and will be documented in a print catalog and also included in the expanding digital “living archive,” the Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene. -
Meet the 2023-24 Climate and Democracy Fellows
January 16, 2024
PPEH is delighted to introduce the 2023-24 Climate and Democracy Graduate Fellows. -
A Path To Youth Climate Activism in New Delhi
December 8, 2023
Aman Sharma uses photography as a tool to engage others to protect the natural beauty that is all around us, even in perhaps unlikely places. In this Field Note, he shares his path to discovering how to use his unique perspective, talents, and love for the biodiversity in his home, New Delhi, India, to advance the fight against the climate crisis. -
A Week in Nicte Ha's Life
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 29, 2023
Welcome to the fifth and final post of the photo essay series "A Week in the Life of a Mexican Environmentalist.” Our fifth post focuses on Nicte Ha’s photographs and fragments from an interview with her about her activism. -
A Week in Citlalli's Life
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 28, 2023
Welcome to the fourth post of the photo essay series "A Week in the Life of a Mexican Environmentalist.” Our fourth post focuses on Citlalli’s photographs and fragments from an interview with her about her activism. -
A Week in Yameli's Life
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 27, 2023
Welcome to the third post of the photo essay series "A Week in the Life of a Mexican Environmentalist.” Our third post focuses on Yameli’s photographs and fragments from an interview with her about her activism. -
A Week in Fátima's Life
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 26, 2023
Welcome to the second post of the photo essay series "A Week in the Life of a Mexican Environmentalist.” Our second post focuses on Fátima’s photographs and fragments from an interview with her about her activism. -
A Week in the Life of a Mexican Environmentalist
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 23, 2023
In this introduction to his "A Week in the Life of a Mexican Environmentalist" photo essay series, 2022-2023 PPEH Graduate Fellow Pablo Aguilera Del Castillo invites us to dwell on the photographs taken by four women to document their everyday efforts to better understand and protect the fragile subterranean landscape in Yucatán, Southern Mexico. -
Meet Our 2023 My Philadelphia Climate Story Climate Heroes!
February 6, 2023
Please welcome our first ever Climate Heroes! This year, as part of My Philadelphia Climate Story, 11 talented high school students from three public Philadelphia schools have been selected to participate in climate writing workshops this winter and spring. -
Reading Buildings Like Documents with Joy Huntington
News
November 17, 2022
An interview with ACLS Leading Edge Fellow Joy Huntington, appointed to Historic Germantown for the project "Decolonizing Historic Germantown: Re-Framing Sites, Collections, Landscapes, and Museums," a collaboration with PPEH. Huntington discusses her research into Germantown's early 20th century history as a site of Black businesses and culture using 1913's "A Souvenir of Germantown" booklet. -
Welcome, Academic Year Student Eco-Reps!
November 15, 2022
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is excited to welcome three 2022-2023 Student Eco-Reps for the academic year! -
The Climate of Concepts: Zine Library
PPEH Fellows Blog
November 9, 2022
In this Field Note from PPEH 2021-22 Postdoctoral Fellow Nandita Badami, she shares student work and reflections from her Spring 2022 class, "The Climate of Concepts: How Words Build Worlds." Read on to learn about how this interdisciplinary work led to student-created zines, and more. -
Listen Up! Philadelphia Youth Share Their Climate Stories
News
October 17, 2022
PPEH's Climate Champions, nine high school teachers working in eight Philadelphia School District schools across the city and approximately 200 of their students joined us at Irvine Auditoriu -
PPEH Welcomes Academic Year Undergraduate Public Research Interns
Announcement
October 17, 2022
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is delighted to announce our 2022-2023 Undergraduate Public Research Interns for the academic year. Congratulations to the three fellows, and welcome to PPEH! -
2022-2023 Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded
Announcement
October 3, 2022
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is pleased to announce a wonderful new cohort of graduate research fellows for the 2022-2023 academic year. -
Gathering Together for a My Climate Story Teacher Retreat
News
July 13, 2022
On June 17th, we kicked off summer with a My Climate Story retreat on Penn's campus in Williams Hall. PPEH Founding Director Bethany Wiggin, Prog -
Welcome, Summer Researchers!
Announcement
June 22, 2022
We are so pleased to welcome a new cohort of summer researchers to PPEH! -
Call for Participation: Working Group on Intersecting Energy Cultures
Announcement
June 21, 2022
We are so excited to launch this Call for Participation with the Working Group on Intersecting Energy Cultures! You can read the full text of the call below. -
PPEH Welcomes New Postdoctoral and Public Pedagogies Teaching Fellows
Announcement
June 6, 2022
We are delighted to announce our 2021-2022 Public Pedagogies and Postdoctoral Fellows. -
Witnessing Climate Stories
News
May 12, 2022
This March, PPEH’s Dr. Bethany Wiggin attended the Chesapeake Conversations: Telling Youth Climate Stories event to present the My Climate Story project, and facilitate a climate storytelling workshop with participants. Afterward, we spoke to two of the event's organizers about their experiences sharing climate stories in this way for the first time. -
Introducing Our Cohort of “Climate Champion” Teachers!
Announcement
April 21, 2022
We are delighted to welcome this astonishingly talented cohort of nine Philadelphia High School teachers as a Climate Champions and part of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities' My Climate Story public research project. -
Meet the 2022 Ecotopian Toolmakers!
Announcement
April 8, 2022
We are delighted to announce our 2022 Ecotopian Toolmakers for Delaware Watershed Justice! Our jury reviewed an exceptionally strong pool of applicants, and selected a cohort of five interdisciplinary creators who will be holding public workshops at the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM) in May and June. Read on to learn more about our Toolmakers and see images of their past work–and stay tuned for their workshop dates at ISM! We hope to see you there. -
We're Partnering with High School Teachers in Philadelphia for Climate Literacy
Announcement
April 5, 2022
Through April 15, 2022, we are recruiting high school teachers across disciplines to become funded “Climate Champions” as part of our My Climate Story climate literacy project! Watch the 30-minute webinar with the project's lead, PPEH's Dr. Bethany Wiggin, to learn more. -
Guiding Our Next Steps
News
March 16, 2022
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is embarking on an ambitious strategic planning process and we want to hear from you! Please take 10 minutes (not more!) to help us discover some basic information about how you--our diverse stakeholders at Penn, in Philadelphia, and across the planet--interact with PPEH. -
PPEH Announces '22-'23 Topic Director: Kristina Lyons
Announcement
February 7, 2022
PPEH announces our next topic director, Kristina Lyons, who will curate a slate of public events in academic year 2022-2023 around the topic Listening for the Anthropos-not-seen. -
PPEH is Now Accepting Applications For The 2022 Ecotopian Toolkit: Ecotopian Tools for Delaware Watershed Justice!
Announcement
January 21, 2022
PPEH is excited to announce that our 2022 Call for Ecotopian Toolmakers is now live! In cooperation with the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM), the Penn Program for Environmental Humanities invites you to participate in a project to create Ecotopian Tools for water justice in the Delaware River watershed. -
Growing Experiential Learning Programs on Campus Farms
News
December 9, 2021
Campus farms, sometimes called student farms, can be found throughout the United States. -
EH, Ethics, and Teaching for the Future with Roy Scranton
News
October 27, 2021
On Oct 6, 2021 PPEH was pleased to host Dr. Roy Scranton from the Notre Dame Environmental Humanities Initiative (EHUM). As part of his visit to learn more about our work, he gave a talk titled "Killing the Messenger: Challenges in Climate Change Communication" at one of our Working Wednesdays series, -
Updates on Futures Beyond Refining with Mr. Charles and Mrs. Tammy Reeves
News
October 7, 2021
On a warm day this June, PPEH Founding Director Bethany Wiggin, Program Coordinator Angela Faranda, and I (Mia D’Avanza, also a Program Coordinator and managing editor of Field Notes) met with Philadelphia-based community organizers and -
PPEH Fall 2021: Welcome back!
News
September 21, 2021
Whether we see you on campus or on screen, we’re delighted to share this fall’s line up of public research and programs in the environmental humanities in Penn and in and around Philadelphia. -
Announcing the Oxford-Penn-Toronto International Doctoral Cluster in Environmental Humanities
Announcement
September 8, 2021
We are excited to announce the development of an international research cluster in the Environmental Humanities, being launched by faculty and graduate students at the Universities of Oxford, Pennsylvania, and Toronto. -
PPEH Welcomes New Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellows
Announcement
August 27, 2021
We are delighted to announce our 2021-2022 Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellows. -
From Petrol to Plastics: Re-powering People at Home
News
August 5, 2021
What is the material, environmental, social, and medical impact of our addiction to fossil fuels, given their ubiquitous use in the construction of our physical environments? -
Ways of Imagining Environmental Justice: Spring 2021 Student Showcase
News
July 20, 2021
This guest post was written by Dr Rebecca Macklin, the 2020-21 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. -
Understanding Environmental Injustice Through The Philadelphia Tribune Archive
News
June 15, 2021
The Spring semester has drawn to a close, and Summer is in full swing. What better time to take advantage of academia's seasonally slower pace and the opportunities for reflection it offers? -
On Dispossessed Time and Its Suspension
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 9, 2021
Welcome to the third and final guest post on "The Arts of Noticing", edited by PPEH Graduate Fellow Pooja Nayak, a doctoral candidate in Anthrop -
Interleaving Ways of Knowing a Prairie: Drawing, Data, and Plants
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 20, 2021
Welcome to the second of three guest posts on "The Arts of Noticing", edited by PPEH Graduate Fellow Pooja Nayak -
Time in Fragments
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 26, 2021
Welcome to the first of three guest posts on "The Arts of Noticing", edited by PPEH Graduate Fellow Pooja Nayak -
Welcome to "Arts of Noticing, Thinking with Doing"
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 20, 2021
The following Field Note is by PPEH Graduate Fellow Pooja Nayak, a doctoral candidate in Anthropology and South Asia Studies at Penn. -
Talking Timescales with Carolyn Fornoff and Patricia Eunji Kim
News
April 5, 2021
In advance of our April 8th book launch for Timescales: Thinking Across Ecological Temporalities, two of the volume's co-editors and PPEH alums Carolyn Fornoff and -
Reflecting on "Solar Imaginaries" with Spring Artists-in-Residence, Kristen Neville Taylor and Ricky Yanas
News
April 2, 2021
This guest post was written with Kristen Neville Taylor and Ri -
Update on The Philadelphia Area Environmental Justice Curriculum Hub
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 23, 2021
PPEH's Davy Knittle (Graduate Fellow) and Andrew Niess (Mellon Dissertation Fellow) recap rece -
Writing Stories Into the Garden, Part 3
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 9, 2021
This is the final post in a series of discussions between historian Miranda Mote, a fifth year PhD candidate at -
Climate Stories in Translation
News
March 1, 2021
In this Field Note from PPEH Public Research Intern and climate storyteller Tsemone Ogbemi, she considers how climate stories and the art of translation overlap. -
Writing Stories Into the Garden, Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
February 17, 2021
This post is the second of three in a series of discussions between historian Miranda Mote, a fifth year PhD candidate at Penn in the Weitzman School of Design, and archaeobotanist Chantel White of the Penn Museum. -
PPEH Welcomes New Cohort of Public Research Interns
Announcement
February 15, 2021
We are thrilled to welcome a new interdisciplinary cohort of Public Research Interns. -
Writing Stories Into the Garden: Researching Francis Pastorius’ Colonial Garden with an Archaeobotanist and Historian
PPEH Fellows Blog
February 5, 2021
Gardens and farms in North America were and remain practical endeavors, but if we look closely at Native American gardens and colonial American gardening and farming we can see that many people believed plants to be divine beings that had the power to heal and nourish. -
Exploring and Creating Collaborations in Colombia: A New Environmental Justice Resource
News
January 21, 2021
How do an anthropologist and a physician teach a new, transdisciplinary class in two languages, across hemispheres, in one semester and emerge with a rich and compelling resource that addresses issues of environmental justice across dynamic communities in Colombia? Read on to find out! -
Spring 2021 PPEH Newsletter
News
January 19, 2021
Read here to see what we have ready to go in Spring 2021! -
PPEH announces Spring 2021 Artists-in-Residence, Kristen Neville Taylor and Ricky Yanas
Announcement
December 22, 2020
PPEH is delighted to announce that Kristen Neville Taylor and Ricky Yanas will be joining us for an artist residency that explores new paths toward necessary transitions away from carbon, and collectively envisions transformation. -
Climate Literacy in Uncertain Times: Climate Storytelling and Story Sharing in 2020
News
November 24, 2020
2020 has been a lot. Along with everything else it’s brought, it’s also the year when the present seems finally to have caught up with the future. No longer subject of a forecast, the future seems to be happening now. -
PPEH Fall 2020: Welcome back!
News
September 16, 2020
PPEH has some fascinating and important events and opportunities lined up for you this semester. Read details in our fall newsletter! -
2020-2021 Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded
Announcement
July 17, 2020
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is pleased to announce a stellar and disciplinarily diverse new cohort of graduate research fellows for the 2020-2021 academic year. Congratulations to the six fellows, and welcome to PPEH! -
PPEH Welcomes New Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellows
Announcement
June 18, 2020
While we all continue to work remotely, we are thrilled to virtually welcome two new additions to our PPEH family this summer and fall. Andrew Niess, PhD candidate in the Department of Music at Penn, joins us this July as this year's PPEH dissertation fellow. -
Blue Notes, Part 4: The Urchin Merchants
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 17, 2020
In this final entry in the Blue Notes series, fisherman Jerry Hussey discusses sea urchins, fishing regulations, and climate change in Atlantic Canada. -
Apocalypse and the Anthropocene: A Broadsheet
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 10, 2020
The spring course “Apocalypse and the Anthropocene,” taught by PPEH Postdoctoral Fellow April Anson, explored the narrative mode of the apocalypse in the context of the geologic designation of the Anthropocene. This digital broadsheet is a manifestation of the class's research. -
PPEH Welcomes New Summer Cohort of Public Research Interns
News
June 9, 2020
We are thrilled to welcome a new interdisciplinary cohort of Public Research Interns this summer. -
Blue Notes, Part 3: Field Work North of 66°
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 8, 2020
In this post, Arthi Ramachandran (PhD Candi -
Brand-new Transdisciplinary Environmental Humanities seminar to be taught in Fall 2020!
News
May 20, 2020
The central "touchstone" course in Penn's new environmental humanities undergraduate minor curriculum will be taught for the first time in the fall semester 2020 by Dr. Kristina Lyons and Dr. Marilyn Howarth. -
Blue Notes, Part 2: Oceanography as a Patiently Put Together Mosaic
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 14, 2020
In this post, Professor Melody Jue (University of California, Santa Barbara) discusses her observations during a research cruise in the Santa Barbara Channel. This is the second entry in the Blue Notes Series, edited by Aylin Malcolm. -
Blue Notes, Part 1: Wet Globalization in Viral Times
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 10, 2020
In this post, Professor Steve Mentz explains how the historical model of “wet globalization” can inform our thinking about present concerns, and introduces his most recent book, Ocean. This is the first entry in the Blue Notes series, edited by Aylin Malcolm. -
The Scales of the Sea: Introduction to Blue Notes
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 29, 2020
Despite the importance of marine systems in global ecological networks, we know relatively little about them, which can make ocean conservation difficult. Through a range of literary, historical, scientific, and practical approaches, this series explores how oceans encourage us to expand and blend traditional forms of knowledge. -
TIPC Contestant Spotlight: Regan Fink
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 24, 2020
This guest interview is a cross-posting from the Investing For Future blog, maintained by our Climate Finance Documentation Team of -
Right to Play: Underwater New York at PPEH Lab
News
March 23, 2020
This guest post was written by the artist members of Underwater New York, Nicki Pombier, Nicole Haroutunian, Helen Georgas, and Nicole Miller, following their micro-residency with PPEH in February 24-26, 2020. -
A Letter to the PPEH Community from our Faculty Director
News
March 13, 2020
We want to support you and have some updates! -
2019 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 5
News
March 4, 2020
This is the fifth in a series of Field Notes focused on the work resulting from the 2019 Research and Teaching Seed Funds. -
2019 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 4
News
February 20, 2020
This is the fourth in a series of Field Notes focused on the work resulting from the 2019 Research and Teaching Seed Funds. -
PPEH announces 2020 Artist-in-Residence, Amy Balkin
News
February 13, 2020
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is proud to announce our 2020 Artist in Residence: Amy Balkin. -
2019 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 3
News
February 5, 2020
This is the third in a series of Field Notes focused on the work resulting from the 2019 Research and Teaching Seed Funds. -
Walking the Arno: a View of Florence from the River
PPEH Fellows Blog
February 3, 2020
Alumna fellow Luna Sarti reflects on a public walk she co-organized along the Arno River in Florence, Italy this past summer, and the implications of that experience for her archival dissertation research. -
Futures Beyond Refining? An eventful day February 3
News
January 31, 2020
The future of the Philadelphia oil refinery is at a critical juncture, and this urgent news post highlights two related events scheduled for this coming Monday, February 3. -
My Climate Story in Translation!
News
January 30, 2020
As we continue to collect personal stories of climate change for our My Climate Story project, we've begun a new initiative to make our story prompts and forms reflect the reality of our multilingual communities! -
2019 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 2
News
January 28, 2020
This is the second in a series of Field Notes focused on the work resulting from the 2019 Research and Teaching Seed Funds. -
Meet the PPEH Fellows: Ben Mendelsohn
PPEH Fellows Blog
January 27, 2020
This Spring we want to give our readers a chance to get to know our talented student and postdoctoral fellows. We are delighted to open the profile series with a brief interview between Program Assistant Rachel Ishikawa and 2018-2020 PPEH Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Ben Mendelsohn. -
Expertise and Advocacy in the Wake of a Refinery Explosion
News
January 17, 2020
PPEH continues to work toward our core commitment to arts-driven inquiry into place, particularly our campus and the City of Philadelphia, in the wake of the bankrupt PES refinery's explosion that rocked the city in the early hours of June 21, 2019. -
Exploring the Possibilities of Immersive Environmental Storytelling
News
January 17, 2020
At PPEH, we've long been curious about how play and games might encourage environmental inquiry. So often environmentalists can seem such insufferable know-it-alls! But what's the role of play in times of crisis? -
Partnership to Encourage and Document Climate Finance on University Campuses
News
January 16, 2020
PPEH has initiated a collaboration with the Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII) to challenge teams at colleges and universities across the country to invest a college endowment to drive climate solutions while generating a healthy return on investment. -
Climates of Inequality and Postures of Collaboration
News
January 10, 2020
PPEH’s public-facing work strategically unsettles traditional boundaries between university communities and wider publics. It aims at helping build multi-scale networks of scholars, activists, artists, and practitioners working on issues of environmental justice. To this end, we joined the Humanities Action Lab (HAL) community-curated public humanities project, Climates of Inequality. -
PPEH is Hiring a New Program Assistant!
Announcement
January 2, 2020
Our fantastic Program Assistant, Rachel Ishikawa, is moving on from Penn! As we say goodbye, good luck and thank you to Rachel, we've got our eye out for someone to take her place on the team, providing creative communications and administrative support to our programs. -
PPEH Announces '20-'21 Topic Director: Daniel A. Barber
Announcement
December 19, 2019
PPEH announces our next topic director, Daniel A. Barber, who will curate a slate of public events in academic year 2020-2021 around the topic Transition/Transformation. -
PPEH Launches New Environmental Humanities Minor & Calls for Course Proposals
Announcement
December 18, 2019
We are pleased to announce a brand new Environmental Humanities Minor in the School of Arts and Sciences, which will officially begin accepting students in the fall of 2020! -
2019 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 1
News
December 16, 2019
This is the first in a series of Field Notes focused on the work resulting from the 2019 Research and Teaching Seed Funds. -
Cultures of Sustainability: Winter Dispatches from a Summer in Berlin and Rotterdam
PPEH Fellows Blog
December 12, 2019
This is a guest blog post by PPEH Faculty Working Group member Simon Richter and student Brea Watkins, who was this past summer's recipient of the PPEH Travel Fellowship -
The Altering Shores VR Pop-Up Stations Go Live!
News
November 19, 2019
Don't miss this week's lead up to the premier performance of The Altering Shores. -
Bridging Experimental Documentary and the Environmental Humanities
PPEH Fellows Blog
November 4, 2019
Rahul Mukherjee and Ben Mendelsohn offer takeaways from “Geosocial Encounters: Ecologies of Documentary Research and Practice,” their two-day symposium on how we come to know human-environment relations through experimental documentary, video art, and research in the environmental humanities. -
PPEH Welcomes New Public Research Interns
News
November 4, 2019
We are delighted to welcome ten new public research interns for the 2019-2020 academic year who will support PPEH's public engagements in the broad categories of Environmental Data and Climate Storytelling and Climate Finance Research and Documentation. -
Animal, Vegetable, Digital: On the Ecologies of Digital Manuscript Studies
PPEH Fellows Blog
October 25, 2019
Describing the representations (and manipulations) of terrestrial and celestial worlds in some of the medieval texts she works with, PPEH graduate fellow Aylin Malcolm explores the ecological implications of digital manuscript studies. -
Gulf Futures: Imagining People-Planetary Possibility with Yudith Nieto
PPEH Fellows Blog
October 16, 2019
PPEH Fellow Knar Gavin offers her reflections on Yudith Azareth Nieto's recent visit as part of the 2019-2020 Elements Lecture Series. -
Kristina Lyons's "Rivers and Reconciliation" Project Wins Ministry of Culture Grant
News
October 15, 2019
Assistant Professor Kristina Lyons's collaborative project "Rivers and Reconciliation: Community Recovery of the Mandur River Watershed" has been awarded a grant by Colombia's Ministry of Culture to develop citizen radio programming. -
How We Talk When We Talk About Public Lands
PPEH Fellows Blog
October 7, 2019
PPEH Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow April Anson considers notions of the public and their commons in what is currently called America. -
We're Sensing Climate Change
News
September 30, 2019
What kind of data might we need to promote action on climate? What kinds of data are “actionable”? -
New Public Humanities Research at PPEH
News
September 17, 2019
How does PPEH navigate the pitfalls of public engagement to make it more hospitable for faculty, students, and community partners? We’re continuing to grow living archives--read about some of our public research interns' latest additions to our digital collections. -
Welcome to our 2019-2020 Graduate Research Fellows
Announcement
September 13, 2019
PPEH extends a very warm welcome to our newest cohort of graduate research fellows for the 2019-2020 Year of Elements. -
Soggy Cities, Entry 4: Bristol
PPEH Fellows Blog
August 3, 2019
In this final entry, Professor Marianna Dudley (History & Environmental Humanities at University of Bristol) reflects on the city of Bristol in England, tracking flows of water through the city's imperial past and into its present. -
Soggy Cities, Entry 3: New York
PPEH Fellows Blog
July 1, 2019
In this entry, Nicki Pombier Berger (Founding Editor, Underwater New York) explores how various writers and artists are responding to New York City's shifting edges. -
Philadelphia School District Environmental Humanities Curriculum Now in the Works
News
June 20, 2019
Guest post from Philadelphia School District math teacher, Tracy Saltz, a student in “Environmental Humanities from the Tidal Schuylkill,” and a Fellow of the Teacher’s Institute of Philadelphia. -
PPEH Welcomes Postdoctoral and Dissertation Completion Fellows
Announcement
June 18, 2019
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is thrilled to announce the first two of our new fellows for the 2019-2020 academic year, Dr. April Anson and Martin Premoli. -
Soggy Cities, Entry 2: Lagos
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 11, 2019
In this entry, Ben Mendelsohn (University of Pennsylvania, PPEH Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow) discusses the coastal ecology of Lagos, Nigeria. -
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Fuel Cuts, Part 3: Film Form and the Capitalocene
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 31, 2019
This essay is the third to a four-part series on the social dimensions of energy use. -
Soggy Cities, Entry 1: Semarang
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 29, 2019
In this entry, Professor Simon Richter (University of Pennsylvania) discusses how rising waters have influenced the city of Semarang in Indonesia. This is the first entry in the Soggy City Series, edited by Martin Premoli. -
Soggy Cities, an Introduction
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 28, 2019
Are cities ground zero for climate change? Read on to learn more. -
Fuel Cuts, Part 2: Entropic Life and Survival of the Fittest
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 28, 2019
This essay is the second to a four-part series on the social dimensions of energy use. -
Fuel Cuts, Part 1: What's energy got to do with it?
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 22, 2019
This essay is the introduction to a four-part series on how energy relates to culture and society. From power dynamics to politics to bodily experience, energy use (and abuse) is as much a cultural and social phenomenon as it is a physical and chemical one. -
Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema, Essay 5: Dog Lady, Companion Species Utopias in Dystopian Landscapes
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 18, 2019
The following is the third essay in the five-part series Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema. In it, Valeria Meiller, PhD Candidate in Spanish at Georgetown University, looks at how interspecies companionship and sustainable engagement with the environment are constrained by structures of oppression and marginality in La mujer de los perros (Laura Citarella and Verónica Llinás, Argentina 2015). -
Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema, Essay 4: The Transgressive Power of the Erotic in Boi Neon (2015)
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 14, 2019
The following post is an essay by Dana Khromov, PhD Candidate in Hispanic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. It is the fourth essay in the 5-part series "Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema". In it, Dana looks at how Gabriel Mascaro's 2015 film Boi Neon employs the erotic to challenge the separation of labor time from leisure and private space from public. -
Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema, Essay 3: This is What the Land Does
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 12, 2019
The following is the third essay in the five-part series Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema. In it, Fábio Andrade considers how agribusiness becomes a synonym of state-sponsored violence, displacement, and erasure in the film Ava Yvy Vera (Genito Gomes, Valmir Gonçalves Cabreira, Jhonn Nara Gomes, Jhonaton Gomes, Edina Ximenes, Dulcídio Gomes, Sarah Brites, Joilson Brites, Brazil 2016). Fábio Andrade is a film critic, filmmaker, and a PhD candidate in the Cinema Studies department of New York University. -
Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema, Essay 2: Rural Time in the Early Films of Lisandro Alonso
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 11, 2019
The second essay in the 5-part series "Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema." Ashley Brock explores how Lisandro Alonso’s films engage duration and self-referentiality to interrogate questions of temporality and meaning in rural and urban spaces. Rural Time in the Early Films of Lisandro Alonso -
Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema, Essay 1: Geology, Loss, and Desire in Viajo Porque Preciso, Volto Porque Te Amo
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 8, 2019
The following post is an essay by Sebastián Figueroa, a PhD Candidate in Hispanic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. It is the first of the 5-part series "Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema". -
Introduction: Reframing Humans, Animals and Land in Contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian Cinema
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 6, 2019
This series of essays explores questions of subjectivity, temporality, and desire through representations of shifting notions of humans, animals and land in contemporary Brazilian and Argentinian cinema. -
Neglected Media, Part 2: Synthetic Landscapes of Food Production
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 19, 2019
Hannah Riddle uses pages from the magazine as a foundation for multidimensional and complex scenes reflecting back on social, cultural and economic phenomena. -
Neglected Media, Part 1: Soil and Our Food System
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 16, 2019
This essay is the first in a four-part series reflecting on the modern American food system. -
PPEH Welcomes Summer Research Interns!
Announcement
April 9, 2019
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is delighted to welcome two new public research interns for summer 2019, Lucy Corlett and Jacob Hershman. -
Congratulations to Luna Sarti, Dean's Scholar!
Announcement
April 3, 2019
Alumni PPEH fellow, Rising Waters fellow, and PhD candidate in Italian Studies, Luna Sarti, was selected as a 2019 Penn Arts and Sciences Dean's Scholar. -
Explorations in Interpretation: Communicating the Entanglement of Science and Contemporary Life
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 27, 2019
Every week, like many other residents of Philadelphia, I sort the stuff I throw away. -
PPEH is now accepting applications for 2019-2020 Graduate Research Fellows!
Announcement
March 18, 2019
PPEH is thrilled to announce that we are now accepting applications from Penn graduate students who have completed their qualifying exams for one-year research fellowships for the 2019-2020 academic year. -
2017-18 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 6
News
March 15, 2019
In roundtables convened in Williams Hall November 1 and 15, 2018, faculty recipients of the 2018 Research and Teaching Seed Fund awar -
PPEH Announces 2019 Research and Teaching Seed Fund Recipients
News
March 10, 2019
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is delighted to introduce its second cohort of Faculty Research and Teaching Seed Fund -
Community Recovery of a Watershed in Times of Perpetuated Conflict and Transition
PPEH Fellows Blog
February 19, 2019
This is a guest blog post by Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Humanities Kristina Lyons, on the public environmental humanities work that forms an integral part of her ethnographic practice. -
PPEH Now Accepting Applications for a Cohort of Summer 2019 Public Research Interns!
Announcement
February 15, 2019
PPEH is now inviting applications for undergraduate public humanities research interns for Summer 2019! We seek to build a vibrant cohort of interns (cohort size is contingent on the receipt of funding for which PPEH faculty have applied). -
PPEH is now accepting applications for the 2019 Ecotopian Toolkit!
Announcement
February 5, 2019
Global warming and other anthropocene challenges, including the ongoing sixth mass extinction event, often lead to apocalyptic visions, or apathy. -
PPEH announces 2019 Artist-in-Residence, Roderick Coover
Announcement
February 5, 2019
PPEH is proud to announce visual artist Roderick Coover as our 2019 PPEH Mellon Artist-in-Residence. -
Call for Applications: Mellon Graduate Environmental Humanities Fellowship 2019-2020
Announcement
February 1, 2019
PPEH is pleased to invite advanced doctoral students in the School of Arts and Sciences to apply for the Mellon Graduate Environmental Humanities Fellowship. -
On Walking, Together: Embodied Research and the Tidal Schuylkill River
PPEH Fellows Blog
January 7, 2019
Liquid Histories and Floating Archives was an experimental seminar that asked students to explore the interweave of global climate change with cultural change, from the hyperlocal vantage point of Philadelphia’s tidal Schuylkill River. -
New Documentation Released of Jacob Rivkin's Ethereal Art Intervention, Floating Archives
News
December 18, 2018
As Jacob Rivkin wraps up his year as PPEH Artist-in-Residence, we are thrilled to announce the release of this new short film by Aidan Un documenting Rivkin's -
Data Refuge launches Data Remediations podcast
News
December 15, 2018
Data Refuge and the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities are excited to share Data Remediations, a brand new podcast designed to re-mediate quantitative measures of our rapidly changing planet, translating them into stories and art to stir hearts and minds. -
On Water Retrospective: Walk Around Mingo Creek
PPEH Fellows Blog
December 12, 2018
On the eve of PPEH Rising Waters Fellows' trip to India for the Penn Winter Institute in Mumbai, we're looking back to the warm days of the Summer -
2017-18 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 5
News
December 11, 2018
In roundtables convened in Williams Hall November 1 and 15, 2018, faculty recipients of the 2018 Research and Teaching Seed Fund awards presented first fruits of their projects to faculty, staff and students. -
Join the PPEH Core Team: Apply to Be Our Next Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow!
Announcement
December 6, 2018
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities is now inviting applications for our second two-year Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. We seek applicants whose research, teaching, and public engagements support and complement PPEH’s core commitments: -
2017-18 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 4
News
December 5, 2018
In roundtables convened in Williams Hall November 1 and 15, 2018, faculty recipients of the 2018 Research and Teaching Seed Fund awards presented first fruits of their projects to faculty, staff and students. -
2017-18 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 3
News
December 5, 2018
In roundtables convened in Williams Hall November 1 and 15, 2018, faculty recipients of the 2018 Research and Teaching Seed Fund awards presented first fruits of their projects to faculty, staff and students. -
2017-18 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 2
News
November 29, 2018
In roundtables convened in Williams Hall November 1 and 15, 2018, faculty recipients of the 2018 Research and Teaching Seed Fund awar -
2017-18 Faculty Seed Fund Sprouts and Shoots: Part 1
News
November 29, 2018
In roundtables convened in Williams Hall November 1 and 15, 2018, faculty recipients of the 2018 Research and Teaching Seed Fund awar -
Climate Futures, Climate Grief and the Climate Game: Eric Holthaus Joins PPEH for Series of Residencies
Announcement
November 16, 2018
Meteorologist, journalist, aspiring game developer Eric Holthaus, will join PPEH as our first Writer-in-Residence for three short stays in 2018-19 beginning with a visit in early -
Fighting for the Future: Lessons from Berlin and Rotterdam
PPEH Fellows Blog
November 1, 2018
This is a guest blog post by Lucy Corlett, recipient of the PPEH Travel Fellowship for the Penn in Berlin and Rotterdam Program in 2018. -
PPEH is Hiring!!
Announcement
October 16, 2018
Come join the growing core team at PPEH! We're hiring a Program Assistant to provide operational and administrative support for our programs. Details here. -
Call for Applications: Faculty Research and Teaching Seed Fund 2018-2019
Announcement
October 9, 2018
For the second year, the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities invites faculty to apply for Research and Teaching Seed Funds in support of projects that speak to PPEH's core commitments. -
Last chance to apply for a 2018-2019 Undergraduate Research Fellowship with PPEH
Announcement
September 21, 2018
The PPEH Undergraduate Research Fellows Program, now in its fifth year, is still accepting applications from students across all of Penn’s Schools. -
Floating Archives on the River on three Saturdays in September
News
September 3, 2018
Floating Archives – a major floating public art installation by artist Jacob Rivkin in partnership with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities – offers moving, animated projections of historic river images, displayed on a screen suspended between canoes and paddled up the tidal river. -
Medieval treasures, future trash
August 13, 2018
The following post is part of the Exploring the Environments of Modernity series, featuring the voices of some of the organizers and participants of a symposium that explored the conceptual arenas of " -
Mourning the spokes-animal for climate change
July 11, 2018
Earlier this summer, the Gorilla Foundation announced the passing of their beloved Koko. Koko, a western lowland gorilla, made fame with her ability to communicate to humans through sign language. -
Avengers in the Anthropocene
June 5, 2018
In her opening address for the Environments of Modernity conference, literary scholar Kate Marshall tackled one of the most prevalent contemporary figures of environmental discourse: extinction. -
Escapisms: An Essay, Enjambed
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 25, 2018
Exploring the Environments of Modernity is a seven part series featuring the scholarly participants of a symposium held earlier this year. Knar Gavin showcases her poem reflecting on the overall message of the event. -
PPEH and Data Refuge at the Philadelphia Science Festival
News
May 21, 2018
A recap from the Philadelphia Science Festival’s Science Carnival, which brought hundreds of families, educators, and passersby in conversation with PPEH and Data Refuge fellows at the specially-designed “Is it Science or is it Art” booth on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. -
Exploring the Environments of Modernity: An Introduction
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 18, 2018
Exploring the Environments of Modernity is a seven part series featuring the scholarly participants of a symposium held earlier this year. Nicole Welk-Joerger gives an introduction to frame a discussion that will continue through the summer. -
Meet the Ecotopian Toolkit Artists, Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 18, 2018
For this year's PPEH Ecotopian Toolkit, each selected artist/team will produce projects that engage floating on/ sinking in/ and otherwise living with urban waters; and explore what it might mean to face contemporary ecological challenges with critically attuned and creatively oriented tools. -
Eastwick Oral History Kiosk "Jukebox" Installation at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge
News
May 18, 2018
The Eastwick Oral History Project documents the rich history and complex cultural life of Eastwick — a vibrant community in Southwest Philadelphia. The neighborhood’s history is marked by deep connections to the landscape and waterways, as well as experiences of displacement and environmental injustice. -
Welcome New PPEH Scholars Kristina Lyons and Ben Mendelsohn
Announcement
May 16, 2018
PPEH welcomes two new scholars to our intellectual community at Penn: Kristina Lyons (Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Humanities) and Ben Mendelsohn (2018-2019 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow). Each comes to the program with exciting scholarly projects, excellence in teaching, innovative research approaches, and visions for public engagement in Philadelphia and beyond. -
PPEH Fellows: End of Year News and Notes
News
May 16, 2018
Catch up with several of our 2017-2018 graduate and undergraduate PPEH Fellows, as they complete their public engagement projects, celebrate milestones, and look back on their year. -
Meet the Data Storytellers, Part 4
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 10, 2018
As part of Penn's first Teach-In since 1969, organized by the Faculty Senate, PPEH and Data Refuge Stories set up Stories Hubs across campus at central locations of interdisciplinary knowledge production and circulation. -
Meet the Ecotopian Toolkit Artists, Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 9, 2018
Last week, we announced the five 2018 Ecotopian Toolkit artists and teams, each of whom will produce projects with PPEH that engage floating on/ sinking in/ and otherwise living with urban waters; and explore what it might mean to face contemporary ecological challenges with critically attuned and creatively oriented tools. Over the next two weeks, we will introduce the Toolkit recipients and share glimpses of their work, ahead of the expanded launch of their projects over the next several months. -
Schuylkill Corps Questionnaire: Bri Barton
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 4, 2018
Bri Barton is an artist, witch, plant grower and organizer. Paired with artist Meg Lemieur, Bri lead an interactive art workshop on story-telling and activism, using their shared work, Waterways as a point of reference. -
2018 Ecotopian Toolkit Recipients Announced
News
May 3, 2018
This spring, the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH) invited artists to contribute proposals to the second installment of the Ecotopian Toolkit, an ongoing public project that began one year ago. -
Research Residences, Part 3
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 3, 2018
Throughout the course of the spring semester, PPEH Fellows and students enrolled in our "Public Environmental Humanities" course engaged local partners in short-term research residencies with local environmental organizations, public humanities projects, and municipal/civic entities. In this blog series, fellows and students reflect on the following prompt: “How has your research residency shaped your own research project?” -
Research Residencies, Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 2, 2018
Throughout the course of the spring semester, PPEH Fellows and students enrolled in our "Public Environmental Humanities" course engaged local partners in short-term research residencies with local environmental organizations, public humanities projects, and municipal/civic entities. In this blog series, fellows and students reflect on the following prompt: “How has your research residency shaped your own research project?” -
Meet the Data Storytellers, Part 3
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 30, 2018
As part of Penn's first Teach-In since 1969, organized by the Faculty Senate, PPEH and Data Refuge Stories set up Stories Hubs across campus at central locations of interdisciplinary knowledge production and circulation. These sites included Penn Nursing, Annenberg School of Communication, Van Pelt Library, David Rittenhouse Labs. At each hub, teams comprised of PPEH student fellows gathered stories about data, research, and evidence-based practice, all of which will be entered into the Data Refuge storybank. Who are the people that generously gathered stories? Meet some of them here: -
Art in Arctic Fields, Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 26, 2018
In October last year, 30 artists sailed along the coast of Svalbard in the tall ship Antigua. Led by guides and crew, we landed to explore the landscape daily. In this blog series, reflections based on field notes are combined with glimpses into artists’ studios, tracing the complexity of the connections between the frozen north and our globalized lives. -
Research Residencies, Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 25, 2018
Throughout the course of the spring semester, PPEH Fellows and students enrolled in our "Public Environmental Humanities" course engaged local partners in short-term research residencies with local environmental organizations, public humanities projects, and municipal/civic entities. In this blog series, fellows and students reflect on the following prompt: “How has your research residency shaped your own research project?” -
Meet the Data Storytellers, Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 19, 2018
As part of Penn's first Teach-In since 1969, organized by the Faculty Senate, PPEH and Data Refuge Stories set up Stories Hubs across campus at central locations of interdisciplinary knowledge production and circulation. These sites included Penn Nursing, Annenberg School of Communication, Van Pelt Library, David Rittenhouse Labs. At each hub, teams comprised of PPEH student fellows gathered stories about data, research, and evidence-based practice, all of which will be entered into the Data Refuge storybank. Who are the people that generously gathered stories? Meet some of them here: -
Meet the Data Storytellers, Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 16, 2018
As part of Penn's first Teach-In since 1969, organized by the Faculty Senate, PPEH and Data Refuge Stories set up Stories Hubs across campus at central locations of interdisciplinary knowledge production and circulation. These sites included Penn Nursing, Annenberg School of Communication, Van Pelt Library, David Rittenhouse Labs. At each hub, teams comprised of PPEH student fellows gathered stories about data, research, and evidence-based practice, all of which will be entered into the Data Refuge storybank. Who are the people that generously gathered stories? Meet some of them here: -
Public Engagements, Part 3
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 10, 2018
What does is mean to do public research in the environmental humanities? This and other questions lie at the heart of this series of essays. -
Public Engagements, Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 10, 2018
How can we imagine new ways to tell stories that inspire urgency and radically re-orient our consciousness toward climate crisis and the Anthropocene? -
Public Engagements, Part 4
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 10, 2018
What does is mean to do public research in the environmental humanities? This and other questions lie at the heart of this series of essays, "Public Engagements." Contributors, PPEH Fellows and students, reflect on: Who is the "public" in my public research? How will they be engaged? Does my project need a public audience? A participant audience? Participant observers? Am I looking for research subjects? Co-creators? How will I document my social practice research? -
Public Engagements, Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 21, 2018
What does is mean to do public research in the environmental humanities? This and other questions lie at the heart of this series of essays, "Public Engagements." Contributors, PPEH Fellows and students, reflect on: Who is the "public" in my public research? How will they be engaged? Does my project need a public audience? A participant audience? Participant observers? Am I looking for research subjects? Co-creators? How will I document my social practice research? -
What's in a Name? The Anthropocene, Part 3
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 19, 2018
This year's PPEH undergraduate fellows represent a range of scholarly fields, modes of inquiry, and creative practices. Together, they have reflected on their ideas surrounding the concept of the "Anthropocene." In particular, they responded to the following prompt: How has recognition of the Anthropocene influenced your thinking about your trajectory in terms of research, scholarship, career, life? This is the third in a series of three posts regarding the Fellows' own thinking and critical pursuits within a moment of profound human imprint on our environment. -
What's in a Name? The Anthropocene, Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 16, 2018
This year's PPEH undergraduate fellows represent a range of scholarly fields, modes of inquiry, and creative practices. Together, they have reflected on their ideas surrounding the concept of the "Anthropocene." In particular, they responded to the following prompt: How has recognition of the Anthropocene influenced your thinking about your trajectory in terms of research, scholarship, career, life? This is the second in a series of three posts regarding the Fellows' own thinking and critical pursuits within a moment of profound human imprint on our environment. -
What's in a Name? The Anthropocene, Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 15, 2018
This year's PPEH undergraduate fellows represent a range of scholarly fields, modes of inquiry, and creative practices. Together, they have reflected on their ideas surrounding the concept of the "Anthropocene." In particular, they responded to the following prompt: How has recognition of the Anthropocene influenced your thinking about your trajectory in terms of research, scholarship, career, life? This is the first in a series of three posts regarding the Fellows' own thinking and critical pursuits within a moment of profound human imprint on our environment. -
PPEH Faculty: Ben Talks
PPEH Fellows Blog
March 6, 2018
Modeled after the popular TED Talks, BEN Talks give our acclaimed faculty 10 minutes each to deliver their “ideas worth sharing,” bringing to life the innovative vision and future of Penn Arts & Sciences. -
Schuylkill Corps Questionnaire: Eve Mosher
PPEH Fellows Blog
February 28, 2018
Eve Mosher is an artist, interventionist and playworker-in-training currently living and working in New York -
Schuylkill Corps Questionnaire: Kate Farquhar
PPEH Fellows Blog
February 6, 2018
Kate Farquhar is a Landscape Designer at Roofmeadow, a landscape architecture and civil engineering firm specializing in innovative green stormwater infrastructure. -
Schuylkill Corps Questionnaire: Charles Haas
PPEH Fellows Blog
January 22, 2018
Charles Haas is the head of Drexel's Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental engineering. -
PPEH Announces New Mellon Artist-in-Residence and Call for "Ecotopian Toolkit" Contributors
News
January 19, 2018
The Penn Program in Environmental Humanities (PPEH) fosters interdisciplinary environmental collaboration and scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, and beyond. Among our core commitments is arts-driven inquiry into place: our campus, the City of Philadelphia, the Delaware River watershed, and beyond. Since 2014, when the Program began, we have worked with artists, alongside scientists, humanists, and civic organizations, to engage a variety of publics around environmental and climate concerns. -
Schuylkill Corps Questionnaire: Danielle Kreeger
PPEH Fellows Blog
January 11, 2018
Danielle Kreeger is the Senior Science Director for the Partnership for Delaware Estuary -
Data Refuge Stories at the American Geophysical Union
PPEH Fellows Blog
December 19, 2017
Data Refuge launched November 2016 in Philadelphia to draw attention to how climate denial endangers federal environmental data. Now, Data Refuge is building a storybank to document how data lives in the world – and how it connects people, places, and non-human species. -
Science and Ice: The Changing Sublime in the Frozen North
PPEH Fellows Blog
November 14, 2017
It’s rather strange, the romance of ice. Strange that a material so hard and cold should seem so alive: so vital and dynamic, so noisy, so busy. Strange and romantic, too, that this lively ice is the pulse of the earth -
Fluvial Ecosystems: Waterly Readings of the Italian Landscape
PPEH Fellows Blog
October 18, 2017
Jogging on a summer evening in Florence almost two years ago, I suddenly realized tourists sitting on the ramps of Piazzale Michelangelo were applauding the setting of the sun over the Arno river. -
Feed for Thought
PPEH Fellows Blog
October 11, 2017
In his short manifesto, “The Pleasures of Eating,” Wendell Berry proposed a powerful statement: “Eating is an agricultural act.” The phrase proposes that the decisions we make when we choose and eat certain foods foster particular kinds of agricultural systems. -
Building an Understanding of the Environment
PPEH Fellows Blog
October 3, 2017
Having the opportunity to work with craftspeople in India using materials such as bamboo, mud and iron -- materials with a comprehensible relationship to one’s immediate environment -- forced me to question aspects of my practice as an architect. -
Reflections on Various Cases of the Legal Rights of Nature
PPEH Fellows Blog
June 17, 2017
In 2016, the indigenous Maori tribe of New Zealand achieved a ground breaking victory when their sacred river—the Whanganui —was granted the same legal rights as a human being. Since then, several countries across the world have experienced similar legal and ecological victories by successfully extending anthropocentric legal protections to beings of historical, cultural, and political significance. -
Matters of Concern: What's in An Ecotopian Toolkit? Part 3
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 19, 2017
In this series, four of the presenters for Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene reflect on a number of concerns that emerged from the conversations throughout the conference's three days. Representing different fields and academic disciplines, the four women offer various perspectives while pondering the following questions: what might an Ecotopian Toolkit look like? How do “we” build one? What tools might “we” want to include? -
Matters of Concern: What's in an Ecotopian Toolkit? Part 2
PPEH Fellows Blog
May 4, 2017
In this series, four of the presenters for Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene reflect on a number of concerns that emerged from the conversations throughout the conference's three days. Representing different fields and academic disciplines, the four women offer various perspectives while pondering the following questions: what might an Ecotopian Toolkit look like? How do “we” build one? What tools might “we” want to include? -
Matters of Concern: What's in an Ecotopian Toolkit? Part 1
PPEH Fellows Blog
April 30, 2017
In this series, four of the presenters for Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene reflect on a number of concerns that emerged from the conversations throughout the conference's three days. Representing different fields and academic disciplines, the four women offer various perspectives while pondering the following questions: what might an Ecotopian Toolkit look like? How do “we” build one? What tools might “we” want to include? -
Data Rescue Philly Builds Data Refuge
PPEH Fellows Blog
January 15, 2017
Updated: Over the course of the two-day DataRescue Philly event, 250+ people attended. We are very grateful for so many motivated, determined, and--above all--generous volunteers and collaborators. Thanks to you all.