{"id":1033,"date":"2009-02-26T11:48:23","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T16:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/02\/26\/about-this-blog\/"},"modified":"2011-02-26T11:47:06","modified_gmt":"2011-02-26T16:47:06","slug":"about-this-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/02\/26\/about-this-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"About this blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

An online space for environmental cultural theory, this weblog has two primary objectives:<\/p>\n

(1) To communicate about issues at the intersection of ecological, political, and cultural thought and practice, especially at the interdisciplinary junctures forming in and around the fields of ecocriticism <\/a>, green cultural studies<\/a>, political ecology<\/a>, environmental communication<\/a>, ecophilosophy, and related areas (biosemiotics<\/a>, geophilosophy<\/a>, social nature<\/a>, poststructuralist<\/a> and liberation<\/a> ecologies, zoontologies<\/a>, urbanatures, animist liberation theologies — invent your own neologisms); and<\/p>\n

(2) To contribute to the development of a non-dualist understanding of nature\/culture, mind\/body, spirit\/matter, structure\/agency, and worldly relations in general. Dualisms aren\u2019t inherently bad, but these ones have become stultifying; they contribute to the log-jam in which environmental thinking has been caught for too long. To this end, the blog is interested in philosophies of process<\/a>, ontologies <\/a>of immanence<\/a> and becoming, and epistemologies <\/a>of participation, relation, and dialogue \u2013 that is, ways of understanding and acting that take ideas and practices, bodies and minds, subjects and objects, perceptions and representations, agency and structure, to be fundamentally inseparable, creative, and always in motion. The blog will be a place where non-dual mind (\/body, subject\/object) meets non-dual world (nature\/culture), or where rigpa meets anima<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(For more on these topics, see the posts on immanence<\/a>, immanent naturalism<\/a>, rigpa and anima<\/a>, geophilosophy<\/a>, green cultural studies<\/a>, between Continental and environmental philosophy<\/a>, and the “P-R Theory 101” links in the right-hand column.)<\/p>\n

The blog aims to be a useful resource for scholars, graduate students, and the interested public. As the boundary between scholarship and the wider world of public thinking gets ever more more blurred thanks to digital technology, the distinction between lay and scholarly loses its cogency. The original idea was for the blog to serve as a forum for thinking in and around the Environmental Thought and Culture Graduate Concentration<\/a> at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont. The broadening described here is an outgrowth of that.<\/p>\n

A blog, like an idea, is only successful to the extent that it germinates, grows, connects, and takes on a life of its own. This one began as one person\u2019s (self-) prod to think out loud and to forge connections in thought, word, and image. To what extent it grows beyond that will become evident over time.<\/p>\n

For a summary of the blog’s first year, see here<\/a>; and of the second year, here.<\/a>
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This version updated (slightly) on December 9, 2010 (after the migration of the blog to WordPress).
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\"click<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An online space for environmental cultural theory, this weblog has two primary objectives: (1) To communicate about issues at the intersection of ecological, political, and cultural thought and practice, especially at the interdisciplinary junctures forming in and around the fields of ecocriticism , green cultural studies, political ecology, environmental communication, ecophilosophy, and related areas (biosemiotics, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[688385,4422],"tags":[4438,291,292,201,4410,692664,4439],"class_list":["post-1033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog_stuff","category-process-relational-thought","tag-becoming","tag-ecocriticism","tag-environmental-communication","tag-immanence","tag-immanent-naturalism","tag-onto_epistemology","tag-political-ecology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-gF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1258,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2010\/05\/05\/lines-in-ecocritical-sands\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":0},"title":"lines in ecocritical sands","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Greg Garrard, who's become something of a point-man for synoptic treatments of ecocriticism (like this one, and see my previous post on him), has come out with a lucid and judicious review of recent publications in The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. It covers the years 2007-8, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1035,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/02\/26\/green-cultural-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":1},"title":"Green cultural studies","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Cultural studies\" refers to the study of cultural objects, meanings, and processes, and their production and use in contemporary society. It is an interdisciplinary field with a twin commitment to intellectual rigor and social relevance. While the \"rigor\" piece sometimes means \"objectivity,\" often it involves a questioning of the assumption\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1084,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/05\/asles-rabbits-cougars-or-whither-ecocriticism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":2},"title":"ASLE’s rabbits & cougars, or whither ecocriticism?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rR8mJQ29coo&hl=en&fs=1& There are rabbits all over the lawns of the University of Victoria campus. Like little furry grass-eating balls, they scurry forward a little from time to time but otherwise placidly chomp away at the lawns, oblivious to humans or anything else. Sometimes they just sit there, or lay themselves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/rR8mJQ29coo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/06\/30\/earth-songs-michael-jacksons-cultural-ecologies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":3},"title":"earth songs: Michael Jackson’s cultural ecologies","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"June 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=f8muMo0fw_M&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1 The death of Michael Jackson has prompted eco-bloggers to take another look at Jackson's 1995 \"Earth Song\", which some consider the most popular environmentally themed song ever produced. The song remains Jackson's biggest seller in the U.K, having sold over a million copies there -- more than either \"Thriller\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/f8muMo0fw_M\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1007,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2008\/12\/01\/the-idea-behind-this-blog-original-version\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":4},"title":"the idea behind this blog (original version)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Every blog has its reason for being. The idea behind this one was originally to serve as a forum for thinking in and around the Environmental Thought and Culture Graduate Concentration, which I coordinate at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont. But that idea mutated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Blog stuff","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/blog_stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6635,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/04\/07\/new-ecocriticism-book-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":1033,"position":5},"title":"New ecocriticism book series","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The list of advisors for this new book series in Ecocritical Theory and Practice shows just how the field of ecocriticism has internationalized over the last two decades. I'm pleased to be part of it. Ecocritical Theory and Practice Book Series Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group\u00a0 Ecocritical Theory\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ecocriticism\"","block_context":{"text":"ecocriticism","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/tag\/ecocriticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1508,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions\/1508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}