Exploited Bodies: Race, Environment, and Visual Culture

Session Submission Type: Complete Panel

Abstract

This session examines the intersections of race, gender, labor, nature, and visual culture in three geographical and chronological contexts, each a site of colonialism and extractive agriculture: Africa, the West Indies, and North America. Kate Johnston focuses on ambiguous visual depictions of gender and race in the West Indies and the Atlantic World; Tasha Rijke-Epstein assesses the visual culture of honey pots in Madagascar as local beekeepers dealt with the stresses of empire and colonialism; Micah Chang surveys the role of advertising in the promotion of idealized images of race and agriculture on the northern plains of Montana. All three presentations address their topics in open-ended ways that invite audience participation. Connie Chang, a prominent environmental historian whose work centers on nature, race, labor, and agriculture, will provide pre-recorded comment.

Sub Unit

• ASEH Annual Conference

Individual Presentations

• "Allegory of Nature": West Indies, 1774 - Kate Johnston, Montana State University

• "Once a honey pot is discovered, all the fools rush in": Apiculture Practices and Colonial Extraction Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Madagascar - Tasha K Rijke-Epstein, Vanderbilt University

• A Sugar Imaginary: Creating the American Farmer Through Images - Micah Tianfong Chang, Assistant Professor

• additional information from Mark Fiege who submitted this session proposal - Mark Fiege, Montana State University

Chair

• Connie Chiang, Bowdoin College