On September 28, Dr. Elizabeth Brunner will deliver a Rhetoric Unbound lecture. Dr. Brunner’s talk, entitled “Ecological Infrastructures,” will take place at 8.00 p.m. Eastern. The lecture will last 30 minutes and will be followed by discussion.
Lecture Description
Western science’s roots in Eurocentric and colonial ideologies have curtailed its ability to develop effective restoration methods that respond to an animate earth by limiting what counts as data, separating human scientists from non-human collaborators, and privileging novel discovery over long-term observation. Critiques of Western science combined with efforts to integrate traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) from Indigenous Peoples have served to disrupt and expand some of the science and restoration being conducted. However, in some cases, TEK is being appropriated in a way that fails to acknowledge the relationships that underpin its effectiveness as it is introduced into U.S. scientific, capitalist, and cultural assemblages. This talk explores what I term ecological infrastructures, or the creation of human infrastructure—seemingly static systems implemented for the benefit of humans—that attempt to mimic ecologies. The juxtaposition of ecological and infrastructure helps to reveal the failures of Western/colonial science to develop interventions that respond to a living earth. I do so using the case study of beaver dam analogues, which are built by humans to mimic beaver dams.
Register for Dr. Brunner’s Lecture
To register for Dr. Brunner’s lecture, click here.
Rhetoric Unbound 