Paper short abstract:

This paper examines issues inherent in environmental historians' use of science: the instability of scientific knowledge, scientists’ often poor use of history, and the value of mining older scientific studies to counteract what Lorraine Daston calls the “amnesiac” qualities of science.

Paper long abstract:

Environmental historians have long used science to animate our narratives, even if we have never quite developed a coherent approach to doing so. We are aware that science is a socially constructed and historically situated activity, and that it is only one of many ways of knowing the more-than-human world, and yet, for many of us, it has remained a steadfast informant. Using my efforts to reconstruct the history of the Aedes aegypti mosquito as a case study, this paper will examine several dimensions of the problem of bringing scientific insights into historical narratives: the instability of current scientific knowledge and the likelihood that understandings will change, undermining one’s narrative; the often poor ways in which scientists use history; and the value of mining older scientific studies, in conversation with contemporary ones, to glean new insights and work around what Lorraine Daston has called the “amnesiac” qualities of the sciences.

Paper short abstract:

The field of Environmental History has been dominated by a tragic metanarrative. What would happen if we tried out some more playful or even comedic approaches?

Paper long abstract:

Disciplinary narratives, like neighborhood reputations, tend to be sticky. They can exert an outsize influence on scholarship for decades. And History may be especially prone to certain tropes, as Hayden White famously argued in books like Metahistory (1973) and Tropics of Discourse (1978). When it comes to Environmental History, in particular, scholars have often found themselves trapped in a double whammy of tragic metanarratives. So this paper takes inspiration from the sister field of Ecocriticism, which in recent years has drawn energy from Queer Studies, Affect Studies, and Performance Studies, all of which incline toward at least some measure of playfulness. What could that spirit of play offer Environmental History? What are the political and intellectual stakes of telling stories with a comedic ending rather than a tragic one? Why do comedic narratives about the past seem somehow less true? Might there be productive ways of combining tragic and comedic approaches as we seek to refresh the narratives of Environmental History?

Paper short abstract:

I never planned to write microhistory, but that is what my recent book, Defending the Arctic Refuge, somehow became. I will reflect on why I adopted this narrative approach and how it can illuminate broader questions concerning visual sources, environmental storytelling, and the scales of history.

Paper long abstract:

I never planned to write microhistory, but that is what my recent book, Defending the Arctic Refuge, somehow became. I will reflect on the factors that led me to write the book in the way I did, including a sense of responsibility to Indigenous leaders and others who shared their stories and knowledge with me. I will explain how this approach allowed me to emphasize mystery and contingency in the narrative—issues of vital importance to environmental history. Even though I was writing about the recent past, microhistory helped make the familiar seem strange and revealed surprising links across multiple scales. The main thread of the narrative focuses on a low-budget slide show and the relationships it helped build between environmental activists, Indigenous communities, and others. The book offers a case study in what I call grassroots visual culture and demonstrates the agency and impact of non-iconic images. By moving beyond iconic images, we can tell new stories about the environmental past, stories that illuminate how images act in the world and have material effects on peoples, places, and politics. I will conclude by reflecting on how these methods and approaches can be applied to other visual sources. These include the controversial Crying Indian, an environmental icon that drew on colonial myths to burrow into public consciousness and become a prototype for greenwashing. While the Arctic Refuge and the Crying Indian represent diametrically different stories, microhistory can reframe our understanding of both and challenge familiar narratives of the environmental past.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the potentials and pitfalls of the adventure genre for historians who narrate human encounters with the more-than-human world, drawing on more than one hundred such stories of adventure travel on rivers in the American Southwest.

Paper long abstract:

Most government reports gather dust on shelves. But John Wesley Powell’s official report, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and Its Tributaries (1875), as well as a popular account by crew-member Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, A Canyon Voyage (1908), did not produce monotonous logs of quotidian experiences and observations, nor dry-as-dirt geological descriptions. They composed stories that pitted the landscape as a formidable opponent in a heroic struggle for survival. Subsequent scientists, engineers, adventurers, and tourists followed their lead by constructing their own adventure stories, echoing Powell. Indeed, they rehearsed their trips by reading Powell, Dellenbaugh, and others, whose dramatic narratives framed and structured their own experiences. Drawing on more than 100 diaries and publications from the century following Powell’s 1869 voyage, I explore the potentials and pitfalls of the adventure genre for historians who narrate human encounters with the more-than-human world.

Paper short abstract:

Saami history changed radically in the 1970s. In northern Norway, hydroelectric modernity clashed with nature conservationism and indigenous rights to lands and waters. The way historians tell stories of the conflict impacts the local communities and landscapes ultimately affected by the Alta dam.

Paper long abstract:

How can we describe and understand critical changes in our environments? One of the essential narrative tools for this purpose is the turning point. It forms a connective node between the beginning and end of a story and is crucial for its moral argument.

The Alta controversy (1970-1982) is an interesting case study of competing narrative structures and semiotically charged landscapes. The conflict centred on two interconnected issues: The protection of the Alta-Kautokeino River from hydroelectric development and the position of the Saami as an ethnic minority after generations of repression.

The efforts of a dedicated people’s movement and several indigenous actors induced a lasting change in the framing of waterscapes and local communities in Northern Europe. The collective actions of civil disobedience were deeply performative and continue to resonate in stories of transformation. Although the protests failed to stop the dam construction, the increased public attention to Saami rights has strongly influenced Norwegian society until today. Historians have continuously developed differing narratives, partly grounded in lived experiences. In the process, the status of the conflict as a decisive turning point became nearly self-evident, thus overshadowing inherent complexities and contradictions.

Alta is a rich case study of how the narrative framing of water resources and their ecological, cultural and economic appraisal have fundamentally impacted the history of political empowerment of indigenous communities.

The presentation will feature the results of my dissertation project, finished in 2024.