Art in Conversation with Climate Change: Anthropological Reflections

Ethnography and art can be forms of storytelling. Both can surface hidden patterns, invisible undercurrents, and fraught dimensions of life, revealing uncomfortable truths and subjugated knowledges. How does ethnography speak

Catherine Besteman, Francis F. and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology, Mannon Frykholm '22, Caroline Stoddard '20, Kevin Argueta '21, Emilie Pilchowski '22, and Siobhan Pascal '20

Transcript: The World Isn’t Me

I took a friend of mine on a brief tour of Occupy Colby. “What does this mean?” she asks as we stand in front of the bear on the pile

Siobhan Pascal '20

Transcript: What is natural?

At what point is something natural? Was this helmet a part of nature before there was a beehive on it? Is this a piece that demonstrates an instance where nature

Kevin Argueta '21

Transcript: DisORDER

“It is conceivable that our misunderstandings of the natural world, our misuse of it, and our conflicted relationship with it would not be conceivable without such ordering systems to formulate

Caroline Stoddard '20

Transcript: My Death Song

“Bird is the Word” soon will become Bird was the word A bird, perched on a peg. What type of life is that?  Birds cannot fly inside a museum.  Or

Mannon Frykholm '22

Below the Surface: Maya Lin and “Becoming-With” Nature

This essay is adapted from an assignment in the Colby College course Environmental Humanities: Stories of Crisis and Resilience, taught by Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Humanities Christopher Walker.  Maya Lin’s Interrupted River: Penobscot

Grace Oh-Willeke '20