In the fall semester, two distinct Nelson Institute’s research centers came together over books. The scientists in the Center for Ecology and the Environment (CEE) joined with the humanists in the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) to discuss how their respective fields interact, particularly around the ideas of queerness in ecological and evolutionary science. “I’ve never liked how non-reproductive individuals often get totally ignored in evolutionary and ecological narratives, and I wanted to learn more about queer perspectives on nature and kinship,” said Kyle Webert, a CEE administrator. He, alongside English professor and CHE faculty associate Sarah Ensor and botany graduate student Tabitha Faber, started the group, which has since met 10-plus times and discussed nearly 20 works. Here is a sampling of the reading group’s list to add to your bookshelf.
The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies, Chapter 7: Queer Ecologies and Queer Environmentalisms
Book edited by Siobhan B. Somerville, chapter by Nicole Seymour
READ
Queer for Fear, Episode 3
Written and directed by Tom Maroney
WATCH
“Re-imagining Reproduction: The Queer Possibilities of Plants” from Integrative and Comparative Biology, Vol. 63, Issue 4, October 2023
By Banu Subramaniam and Madelaine Bartlett
READ
“Land as pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation” from Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2014
By Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
READ
Dry Land
By B. Pladek
READ
“Men, Masculinities and Climate Change: A Discussion Paper”
READ
Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, Tenth Anniversary Edition
By Joan Roughgarden
READ
“The Science Underground: Mycology as a Queer Discipline” from Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, and Technoscience Vol. 6 No. 2, 2020
By Patricia Kaishian and Hasmik Djoulakian
READ
Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, “Freaks and Queers” chapter
By Eli Claire
READ