1928: Beaver People. Canada. https://www.nfb.ca/film/beaver_people/embed/player/ 1930: Beaver Family (16min). Canada. A short silent film portraying Grey Owl, the famous conservationist, and a family of beavers who would come when he called and take food from his hand without the slightest fear. The film is set in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba. https://www.nfb.ca/film/beaver_family/embed/player/ 1942: Fur Country.... Continue Reading →
White Animals: Racializing Sheep and Beavers in Tierra del Fuego
Mara Dicenta (2021) White animals: racializing sheep and beavers in the Argentinian Tierra del Fuego, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, DOI: 10.1080/17442222.2021.2015140 Download Article here:
Worlding the end
Mara Dicenta & Gonzalo Correa (2021) Worlding the end: A story of colonial and scientific anxieties over beavers' vitalities in the Castorcene, Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, DOI: 10.1080/25729861.2021.1973290 This article examines a technoscientific project for eradicating theNorth American beaver in Tierra del Fuego (TDF), an austral region known as“The End of the World.”Introduced from Canada into TDF... Continue Reading →
Bio-Social Invasions in southern Patagonia
Archibald, J.L., Anderson, C.B., Dicenta, M. et al. The relevance of social imaginaries to understand and manage biological invasions in southern Patagonia. Biol Invasions 22, 3307-3323 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02325-2 Here, we studied how terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate species assemblages in Tierra del Fuego (TDF) have been co-constructed between humans and nature. To analyze how socio-historical processes interact with biological invasions,... Continue Reading →
Crustacean Crisis: Encourage Experts to Come Together
By Sophia Chirico The Chesapeake Bay Many can agree the health of the Chesapeake Bay is deteriorating. Until about 1950, the Chesapeake Bay accounted for over 75% of the total reported U.S. harvest of blue crabs. Since that time, there has been a slow decline in the region’s market share to an average of less... Continue Reading →
Food, Waste, and the Environment: Waste Relations on a College Campus
By Charlotte Walters (Spring 2022) The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines waste in multiple ways such as “a sparsely settled or barren region,” and “refuse from places of human or animal habitation such as garbage, excrement, and sewage.” Put simply, waste is discarded, expelled, or excess matter. However this term invokes a more complicated discourse in relation... Continue Reading →
How has tourism environmentally redefined, reshaped, and changed native lands in Williamsburg, Virginia?
By Bibiana Mirones (Spring, 2022) Understanding Environmental Anthropology This semester I took Dr. Mara Dicentas Environmental Anthropology Course at William and Mary. Before I take any class that discusses people, topics of decolonization, and themes of intersectionality, I am conscious and reflect on what I hope I will gain from as well as be critical... Continue Reading →
Who Shapes Space?
By Elyas Bouallegui (Spring 2022) This blogpost attempts to illustrate the molding of space by human and non-human inhabitants as they work to serve their own motives in similar ways within a shared space. Specifically, I will be telling the story from my perspective through observing and interviewing a frequent and longtime visitor of Huntley... Continue Reading →
Birdwatching with Birds Watching
Exploring human-animal relations with the William and Mary Bird Club By Alice Palfreyman (Spring 2022) Walking through the Wildflower Refuge on the William and Mary campus, I hear some excitement from the Bird Club crowd in front of me as we turn the corner. Peering through my binoculars, I see exactly what everyone is raving... Continue Reading →
Hearing Indigenous Voices in Parks: Ethical Indigenous Representation
Stella Davis, Grace Dho, Anna Lowe, & Lindsey Monteith Indigenous Voices in Conservation 2022 Think about your favorite local state park. You probably associate it with beautiful landscapes, wildlife, and trails. But, how much do you know about the Indigenous history of that park or the land it’s on? Despite having extensive Indigenous connections, the... Continue Reading →
Protected: Colonial Dams on the River of Indigenous Knowledge
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
An Opportunity for Growth: Botanic Gardens, Native Plants, and TEK
Evelyn Hall, Marley Fishburn, Laila Kennedy, Isabel Hawkes Park Signage (Kennedy 2022) Williamsburg Botanical Garden We visited Freedom Park's botanical garden this past Spring. While it was a wonderful experience with the flora and fauna that the end of winter brings, we had another purpose for our visit. This walk in the park was a... Continue Reading →
Protected: River People: How damage to the Rappahannock River’s Ecosystem has Impacted the Tribe that Bears Its Name
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Parks in Virginia – Explorations
Click here to check our interactive GIS map on Virginia's parks. Our class went to do some ethnographic explorations about Nature, Settler Colonialism, and Indigenous Voices in Conservation: York River State ParkFreedom ParkJamestown IslandCollege Landing more to come...
Reparation After Science, Nature, and Settler Colonialism 