Lions and Tigers and Tabbies, Oh My! Two Reviews of La Berge’s Marx for Cats
La Berge’s Marx for Cats tells the story of capitalism through cats. In these reviews, Magaryta Golovchenko and Marta Wolny discuss what felines add to the conversation …
Mothering in Times of Crisis: A Conversation with Jennifer Case and Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
Kayleigh Lobdell speaks with authors Jennifer Case and Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder about each of their recent books about human and beyond-human mothering in this political and ecological moment …
When Monster Snails Eat Wetlands
The Coca Cola-funded micro-wetland of the Green Water Nature Center was to be a straightforward, water purification project. And then came the apple snail. These small creatures, Qieyi Liu shows, complicated everything …
When Was the Last Time You Saw a Firefly?
To Erin Hassett, the light of the firefly is not just a chemical reaction but the magic of childhood itself. As insects rapidly disappear, she reflects on her intimate relationship with the lightning bug, the tensions between science and magic that it sparks, and how we might create a brighter future …
Mapping the Social Lives of Rattlesnakes
For many people, rattlesnakes are scary at worst, mysterious at best. Amber Aumiller maps rattlesnakes’ social lives and where they intersect with humans’ in Utah’s San Rafael Swell. These desert kin, she shows, are much more complex than most people imagine …
Landscapes of Displacement and the Politics of Dead Pets
In 1977, the pets of a Los Altos, California cemetery were exhumed and relocated to Napa. Zak Breckenridge argues Errol Morris’s Gates of Heaven documentary on the event is a prehistory of today’s housing and land crisis …
Camera Trap Poetics
After the Woolsey Fire devastated the Santa Monica Mountains in California, researchers placed trail cameras to observe the return of wildlife. Chase A. Niesner composed and performed “Signs of Life” from the images captured. In this exhibit, he reflects on the essence of being and the passage of time captured in this great return …
Conserving Pangolins from a Distance
Trang Đặng develops an ethics of care for pangolins, despite living a world away. Her “respectful distance” is a form of companionship rooted in humility, one that acknowledges interdependence without claiming possession and embraces intimacy without proximity …
Parrots at Play in the Arab Soundscape
Joseph Leidy deciphers the cacophany of parrot voices on Arab social media, from faithful recitations of the Quran to playful banter. The parrots speak to autonomy and play in multispecies companionships …
The Rise and Demise of Equine “Cyborg” Labor
U.S. cities were built with and around horse-human-machine assemblages. Bri Meyer explores the one-time prominence and lasting impact of “cyborg” equine labor on Madison, Wisconsin …
Do Cows Appreciate Poetry? And Other Musings On Our Bovine Friends
In these poetic fieldnotes, Mia Werger reflects on befriending feedlot cattle, surviving our broken food system, living under constraint, and dreaming of freedom …
Bearing Colonialism in Japanese Popular Culture
Benjamin Chin-Hung Kao looks beyond the often-cutesy appearance of bears in Japanese popular culture to discover their role in the country’s violent colonial history and present …
