Rachel Carson Center

We were delighted to host you and to learn more about the Schweisfurth Foundation. Thank you for the interesting discussion on Tuesday!

We are excited to share a new article by former Fellow Dr. Irus Braverman: “The New Jewish Shepherd: Land Grabbing and Redemption in the Occupied West Bank.”

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Irus explores the recent surge of sheep herding and grazing practices among Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The article examines how Jewish-owned livestock is used as a means of territorial control and a tool for “re-indigenizing” settlers within the landscape. By analyzing these “animated technologies,” Braverman reveals how sheep have become central to the production and normalization of biblical and spiritual imaginaries of the land.

Read the full article at: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aman.70083

Full citation: Braverman, Irus. “The New Jewish Shepherd: Land Grabbing and Redemption in the Occupied West Bank.” American Anthropologist (2026): 1–17.

On Tuesday, June 16, Monika Griefahn, a founding member of Greenpeace Germany, former minister of the environment of Lower Saxony, and former member of the German parliament, currently with Cradle to Cradle NGO, will join us virtually for our weekly Tuesday Discussion. It will be held as a hybrid event in our fourth floor conference room and online on Zoom.

Monika Griefahn will shed light on what has driven the environmental movement and politics forward over the last 40 years, with references to her own story, and address the challenges that still lie ahead.

If you would like to join the discussion via Zoom, please contact the organizer Annika Stanitzok ([email protected]) in advance to receive the link.

The Tuesday Discussions are free and open to the public. See our website for more info!

Event page: https://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/events_conf_seminars/calendar/td_griefahn/index.html

Tomorrow, Prof. Dr. Gordon Winder (Economic Geography and Sustainability Research, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) will join the lecture series Thinking, Imagining, Building Future Environments with his presentation on “Marine Spatial Planning, Blue Economy, and Just Transitions.“

https://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/events_conf_seminars/calendar/lc_winder/index.html

All talks are completely free and open to the public. The talks may be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students in Munich, or to anyone with an interest in environmental issues.

This interdisciplinary lecture series presents a range of topics related to human-environment relationships and consists of lectures by faculty from various disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. By presenting diverse research related to environmental issues, the lectures will shed light onto the complexity of human-environment relationships. Why and how do different disciplines explore and think about this nexus and specific materials, organisms, phenomena, and representations of the environment? The lecture series seeks to enhance students’ environmental literacy and open up multiple perspectives on environments of the past, present, and future.

Check out the newest issue of 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘌𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 (The White Horse Press), which was guest edited by RCC PhD candidate Lijuan Klassen and RCC Director Christof Mauch!

Their editorial addresses the framework of “planetary health,” offering critiques, praises, and a fresh perspective based in the environmental humanities.

The issue emerged from the October 2024 planetary health workshop convened by Klassen and Mauch.

https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/whpge/current

This might be interesting, too.

'Grotesque Anthropocene: Disfigured Environments Across Media,' an book, explores the excesses, distortions and perverse effects that emerge when art and popular culture refuse reverence for nostalgic views on nature.

Link in the comments.

This could be interesting to our community.

BEYOND DE/COLONIALITY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA?

Join us for an online symposium exploring critical perspectives on de/coloniality, knowledge production, and postcolonial complexities in Southeast Asia.

📅 Friday, 29 May 2026
🕑 1400–1815 (Manila / Brunei / Singapore Time)
💻 Via Zoom
🔗 Register here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/1yYk_Fs3SEeTHe0UGsdNGg

The symposium offers a critically appreciative interrogation of the application and limits of decolonial framing in the region. Four papers present cases that show the complexity of colonial and postcolonial situations and raise questions about simplified de/colonial framings. The fifth engages the critics of decoloniality, and the sixth proposes a shift from decolonial critique to a cartography and accountancy of power/knowledge.

SESSION 1 (14:15-15:25): Decolonial Discourse and Its Excluded Subjects
• “Taming Indigeneity: Pitfalls of Decolonial Discourses and Academic Constructions of Indigenous Peoples and Self-determination in the Philippines”
- Karen Calderon (University of the Philippines, Baguio)
• “Decolonial But Denied: Locating the Bangsamoro in Southeast Asian Knowledge Politics”
- Aisah P. Solaiman, Abdul Wahid I. Tocalo, Wilfredo C. Juntilla Jr., Gurhan A. Adan, Asmin P. Abdullah, and Kebart P. Licayan (BARMM Parliament and Australian National University)

SESSION 2 (15:35-16:45): Ambiguity, Subjectivity, and the Limits of the De/Colonial Frame
• “Managed Pluralism: No Longer Chinese, Not Quite Indonesian, and Not Fully Hero?”
- Myra Mentari Abubakar (National University of Singapore)
• “Rethinking beyond de/coloniality: attending to subjectivity, resistance, and care of TESOL teachers in the Philippines”
- Carlo G. Soberano (Universiti Brunei Darussalam & National University)

SESSION 3 (16:55-18:15): Critique, Power/Knowledge, and Conceptual Reframing
• “Decolonization and the Task of Critique: Against the Colonized’s Defense of the Enlightened World”
- Luther Aquino (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
• “From Decoloniality to Cartography and Accountancy of Power/Knowledge?”
- Rommel A. Curaming (Universiti Brunei Darussalam)

Co-hosted by:
• De La Salle University Southeast Asia Research Center and Hub (DLSU-SEARCH) and
• Benguet State University (Department of History and Philosophy, College of Social Sciences)

We look forward to welcoming scholars, students, and members of the public interested in Southeast Asian studies, decolonial thought, and critical reflections on knowledge production in the region.

Tomorrow, the executive director of Schweisfurth Stiftung, Niels Kohlschütter, will join us for the Tuesday Discussion.

The Schweisfurth Foundation has been committed to a sustainable food system for 40 years. As an operational foundation, it implements its own projects in the areas of applied research and the creation of spaces for dialogue. Its thematic priorities include animal welfare, urban-rural, and water protection. The key to the projects' success lies in collaboration through diverse partnerships.

The Tuesday Discussions are free and open to the public.

Event page: https://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/events_conf_seminars/calendar/td_kohlschuetter/index.html

See you tomorrow!

Next week ethnobiologist and forest education teacher Anna Varga will give a workshop on charcoal burning. Taking an environmental humanities perspective on the charcoal used at a barbecue, Anna will explore the history and culture of the material and provide a hands-on experience through a multisensory activity.

Find out more: https://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/events_conf_seminars/calendar/varga-charcoal-workshop/index.html

Former Carson Fellow Bron Taylor has launched a new Substack exploring the ethical, spiritual, and political dimensions of our relationship to the living world:

Bron Taylor | Substack Professor of Religion, Nature, and Ethics, the University of Florida | books include Dark Green Religion and the Planetary Future, Avatar and Nature Spirituality, Ecological Resistance Movements, and the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature.