Field Station 2: Anthropocene Drift
The Midwestern United States is dominated by cropland, a patchwork of monocrop fields laden with corn and soy destined for confined animal feedlots, fuel refineries, chemical manufacturers, and global export. Globally, such large-scale agriculture is deeply connected to climate change, contributing more than one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. However, political ecologists argue that the impacts of industrial agriculture cannot be measured by emissions alone. From the near-total destruction of the prairie biome by the beginning of the 20th century to the flow of 21st century chemicals down the Mississippi River, agricultural land degradation reaches across territories, connecting past, present, and future.
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- contributionNicholas Brown, Sarah Kanouse
Chi-Nations Youth Council
In this short film, Adrian Pochel, one of the lead organizers of the Chi-Nations Youth Council talks through the group’s work promoting Indigenous rights in the city of Chicago.
Film, Case Study, Reflection, Indigenous Rights, Agency, Care, Engagement, Equality, History, Inequality, Life, Network
- contributionSarah Kanouse, Temporary continent.
Maa Wákąčąk: Sacred Earth in the Anthropocene
Sarah Kanouse recounts Maa Wákąčąk’s histories of conservation and conquest are anything but “past,” and continue to overlap and exert anthropocenic influence on this sacred earth.
Field Work, Conversation, Engagement, Complexity, Ecology, Extraction, Indigenous Rights, Waste
- contributionJamie Allen, Temporary continent.
Faith, Family, Farming
Tracing the role folklore has played—and continues to play—in the quantification and gridification of American landscapes, and the harvesting of worth of all kinds
Field Work, Storytelling, Conversation, Agriculture, Capitalism, History, System
- contributionLouise Carver, Temporary continent.
Lands, Legitimacy, and Lines of Trust
How lines of trust—and their ruptures—shape the affective and physical dimensions of both land and territory.
Field Work, Engagement, Conversation, History, Settler Colonialism, Indigenous Rights
- contributionRyan Griffis
Sacrifice Zones and Portable Climate
How has the extraction of coal throughout Illinois changed the local landscapes and living conditions? A field trip to the Middle Fork of the Vermillion River examined both the intentional as well as unintended, or “feral,” consequences and responses to the practice of coal mining.
Field Study, Mining, Landscape, Ecology
- projectDylan AT Miner, Ryan Griffis, Sarah Kanouse, Jon Lund
Moraine/Terminal
Moraine/Terminal is a portable gathering, exhibition, and conversational space traveling alongside the mobile seminar Over the Levee, Under the Plow.
Field Work, Conversation, Storytelling, Engagement, Extraction, Settler Colonialism, Mining, Commodities
- projectNicholas Brown, Ryan Griffis, Sarah Kanouse
Over the Levee, Under the Plow
A traveling seminar on the relations between settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and environmental concerns in the Upper Midwest territory.
Case Study, Field Study, Storytelling, History, Agriculture, Violence, Capitalism, Landscape, Settler Colonialism, Race, Agency, Environmental Justice, Indigenous Rights
- projectRozalinda Borcilă, Nicholas Brown, Ryan Griffis, Sarah Kanouse, Sam Muñoz, Heather Parrish, Corinne Teed
Over the Levee, Under the Plow: An experiential curriculum
What does it mean to become a responsible guest? This set of field guides and accompanying exercises offer an adaptable tool for the uninvited traveler.
Case Study, Storytelling, Engagement, Knowledge production, Local knowledge
