Grasping Soil

A Syllabus and Essays for The Environmental Humanities

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

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Soil is a nearly ubiquitous presence in our lives, regardless of whether we spend much time noticing it. Soil holds worlds within itself and also builds other worlds; it devours and remakes things; it sustains life and gives cover to the dead. Grasping Soil is a collectively-authored syllabus and series of essays, all examining, with different inflections, the fundamental question: what comes into view when we ‘grasp’ soil as a vessel of human history and point of view for inquiry?Part I is an interdisciplinary syllabus that traces the contours of a growing body of work in the humanities that uses soil as a bridge between human and more-than-human histories. The syllabus offers a template of readings, discussion questions and assignments with an accompanying website for easy access to the supporting materials. The essays that follow in Part 2 explore particular moments and locations in which communities have modified, depleted or remade soil to suit a particular need. In examining these engagements with soil, each essay provides a particular view on the social, political or economic conditions that they reflect and create. The essays range from mountain top mining in Appalachia to the construction of a load-bearing monolith in Nazi-era Berlin, and the layered, residual histories of agricultural projects in Tanzania. As these essays make clear, soil is a lively presence not an inert recipient of human desires and actions. It is a living and not always governable community with ever-changing stories to tell.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-03-02
Mått152 x 229 x 14 mm
Vikt507 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor222
FörlagWhite Horse Press
ISBN9781917813020

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Miljövetenskap och miljöpolitik inom Naturvetenskap och teknik

CONTENTSIntroduction PART I: SYLLABUS Soil as Substrate Cynthia Browne, Johannes Lehmann Soil as Archive Amiel Bize, Seth Denizen, Jayson Maurice PorterSoil as HealthEmily Brownell, Tamar Novick, Lulu Tessua Soil as BelongingDotan Halevy, Basil Ibrahim, Paul Kurek, Steven Stoll Syllabus bibliographyPART II: ESSAYS Soil’s MetabolismsUnder the electron microscope, Lehmann Lab, Cornell University, New York: Behaviour instead of Identity: Functional Complexity of Organic Matter as an Organising Principle in Soil EcosystemsJohannes LehmannBritish Mandate Palestine: “The Fertility of the Soil is in Your Hand”: On Manure and the Colonial Roots and Branches of the Organic Movement Tamar Novick Kwale District, Kenya:Building Roads, Counting Worms: Soil as a Medium for Parasitic RelationsEmily Brownell Residual Histories The Ring of Fire, Americas: Arsenic Cycles through Racism and Empire Jayson Maurice PorterAppalachia, USA:Mountains Become Wasteland Steven StollNdungu, Tanzania:Knowing Soil as a Living Thing, Treating it as a Non-Living Body: Contradictory forms of CareLulu TessuaLusatia, Germany: Punkt Null (Point Zero): An Ecological Substrate Begins AnewCynthia BrowneSubstrates and Belonging Berlin, the Cosmos:Blood over Soil? Albert Speer’s Heavy Load-Bearing Cylinder, Glacial Till, and Racial Terra FormingPaul Kurek The Gaza Strip, Palestine:Cultivating an Ancient Soil: Sub-dune Histories and Ecologies Dotan Halevy