Caroline Abbott

“NiCHE November” is here — and We Need Your Support!

A Word Regarding The Network in Canadian History and Environment’s Annual Fundraising Campaign

It’s time for “NiCHE November” once again! We are a volunteer organisation, and depend upon the generosity of our #envhist and #envhum community to continue doing the work we do. From essay series (like the one my contributors and I just wrapped up!), book reviews, a New Scholars Community, and so much more, NiCHE is a leading force with a broad reach and big goals. We have a readership of ten to twenty thousand per month and a global reach, but we can’t do any of it without your support. If you are in a position to do so, please consider donating. Every bit enables us to continue doing the work we do and to fairly pay our social media editor, whose expertise is absolutely vital. If you aren’t able to donate financially, we’d just as greatly appreciate a share: please consider distributing our Fundrazr to your social circles (and — feel free to distribute or repost this digital pie if you think it will help drum up support or boost the post up on the algorithmic chain!).

Becoming involved with NiCHE has been the single most educating, exciting part of my academic life over the last few years. Our team has done so much to teach and to uplift me — just as it does for so many new voices and junior scholars. It is the pride of my academic life to continue paying that experience forward as I approach my second editorial term! NiCHE matters to so many. Please consider a contribution so that NiCHE can continue reaching people, amplifying great scholarship, building our community — and writing the future of environmental history.

“House Lights, On! Editorial Reflections on the ‘Ghost Light’ Series”

Future Work, Thanks, Conclusions — and — an Announcement! 9 November, 2022.

“six contributors […] rose to the challenge of responding to the inquiries proposed by the Ghost Light call for participants in unique ways. Their work took NiCHE audiences on folkloric journeys across a humbling scope: other-than-human beings emerged from the cultural histories of four continents. I hoped to approach my role as editor with the intention of co-cultivating a digital space which could germinate these highly intersectional conversations rigorously, yet allow them to flourish and reach freely towards new light. The patience and care of our authors proved fertile soil, and all credit belongs to them. […] The inaugural wave of the series now ended, if we were to return to the dead-ends and unknowns of Willington’s vampire panic as an example, would we find ourselves better prepared to approach outstanding questions through its other-than-human, folkloric environmental frameworks?”

In order of publication, I am deeply grateful for the patience, time, dedication, labour, and care of Clare O’Reilly, Adrianna Michell, Jonathan Westaway, Suddhasil Halder, Amanda Wells, and Rosamund Portus. My sincerest gratitude belongs to each of them for making a shared vision for the thematic scope of this work a reality, and for choosing Ghost Light, and NiCHE, as a home for their work. As I enter my second term as a member of NiCHE’s editorial team and close this chapter of my first edited series, they have each reaffirmed and reinvigorated my love for what we do and how we do it in unique ways. I wish them all the very best, and greatly look forward to the opportunity to work together in future! My thanks are also with our co-Editors in Chief, Prof. Andrew Watson and Dr. Jessica DeWitt for the patience, guidance, and time they have invested in helping me learn.

We are also excited to announce that Ghost Light is now an Open-Call series! To express interest, kindly review the original Call for Participants (extensions beyond the suggestions within are welcome!). Submit abstracts of 250 words and a short bio of 100 words by email: your interest will be answered as soon as possible.

NiCHE Conversations 3.4: Folkloric nonhumanity on the environmental stage With Caroline CE Abbott

On Other-Than-Human in Folklore, Environmental History, and the Ghost Light Series. 31 October, 2022.

Discussing her NiCHE Series Ghost Light, series editor Caroline C.E. Abbott chats with one of NiCHE’s co-Editors in Chief, Dr. Jessica DeWitt, on defining folklore, other-than-human “being” in the “stories society tells” (a reference to Dr. DeWitt’s theory of Park Mythology and the Parks and Profit series which sprung up from it) series inspiration, and more (viz. the episode in which I surprise an unsuspecting Jessica with a ridiculous, NiCHE-themed Halloween costume). Episode will also be made available via Nature’s Past.

Thanks for having me, Jessica! And, to those celebrating, Happy Halloween from all of us at NiCHE!

“Whom And What Do I Touch When I Touch My Vampire?”: A Series Introduction to Ghost Light

An Introduction to the NiCHE Series. 12 October, 2022.

“Where Bell attempts to shed light on the edges of the vampire in hopes of casting it into sharper definition […], he offers an important admission which strengthens parallels to [Donna] Haraway’s work: ‘a vampire by any other name would be as lethal.’ The stage now set, this series would ask: ‘whom and what do I touch’ when I touch my vampire?”

The commitment and dedication of a wide array of contributors allows me the pleasure of introducing my first edited NiCHE Series, Ghost Light: Folkloric NonHumanity on the Environmental Stage. The work they have prepared evidences, among other things, the unique preparedness of environmental history and the environmental humanities to approach the entanglements between non, or other-than-human “beings,” folklore, and environment at a global scale. As states the introductory essay, we will indeed “encounter ghosts, monsters, and mythos” across a great breadth of global ecologies. Importantly, their commitment also demonstrates the vast promise to be had in applying these conceptual frameworks, as well as the necessary work which lies within. The series goal — to “illuminate the relationships between non-human, or other-than-human beings, folklore, and the environmental humanities and to encourage intersectional conversation” is realised through their hard work. It is a pleasure to introduce their labour in this manner, and to involve a Connecticut-area mythology in its framing.

Thank You! A Message Regarding “GHOST LIGHT”

Submissions Closed: An Update on the NiCHE Series. 7 September 2022.

I wish to express my tremendous gratitude to those who have sent in their submissions in response to the “Ghost Light” Call for Participants. We have received a humbling breadth of compelling proposals, all of which take unique approaches to the study of other-than-human folkloric “being” on an environmental stage. The response to this project exceeds my “wildest" expectations, and poses an enriching curatorial challenge for a still-new editor. As the preliminary shape of this series comes into focus, the promise of applying these frameworks is very clear: I am excited to share news that, due to the extensive response, we have extended the series into November! The projects which will be featured in this series aptly reflect the potential of non-human folkloric “figures” to ignite new conversations and stoke existing ones.

On behalf of all of us at NiCHE, I thank you wholeheartedly for the effort I have seen shine through across this bounty of well-crafted, incredibly prudent, fun, thoughtful submissions. It will be a privilege to learn with and from each other in the weeks and months ahead! I am very thankful to be a part of this co-cultivated digital space.

If you have a last minute submission for our consideration, have your monsters call my monsters (you can find my email address on my contact page).

In gratitude,

Caroline Abbott

CFP: Ghost Light: Folkloric Non-Humanity on the Environmental Stage

A NiCHE Series, Ed. Caroline Abbott, Call for Participants 12 August 2022.

I am very pleased to introduce my first essay series as an Editor for NiCHE’s The Otter: “NiCHE seeks contributions to Ghost Light which illuminate the relationships between non-human beings, folklore, and the environmental humanities. […]” This project grows from several branches of recent work and professional development which have inspired the pursuit of others’ answers to several big questions (as stated in the original call): “who are the non-human (or other-than-human) actors in folkloric stories, and what relationships do these stories have with environment? Into what roles are non-human beings cast on the stage of history, culture, or anthropogenic environmental change? What does what we fear, venerate, or mythologize tell us about the environments with which interact, or that we study?” This project aspires to open this topic of conversation to new audiences and to invite new voices: to garner contributions from many corners of the world and consider the frameworks which unite, separate, or conjoin these other-than-human folkloric figures in environmental contexts.

I would like to acknowledge with great thanks the support of my fellow editors, and especially, the patience of Editors in Chief Dr. Jessica DeWitt and Prof. Andrew Watson, for their guidance in shaping this project and for their mentorship throughout my growth as a researcher. I am also deeply thankful to all speakers and fellow participants at Bucknell’s Summer Institute on Non-Humanity, which has inspired so much of this work, and to the Northeast Atlantic Regional Environmental History Forum for their humbling encouragement, good ideas, great questions, and above all, constructive guidance.

Please feel free to connect with me with questions or ideas for collaboration, or for a list of recommended reading to get you started. An Honoraria is also available for NiCHE contributors “who are without adequate or consistent access to institutional financial compensation, assistance or support.’”

Submission deadline 6 September 2022. Series to be published on The Otter at end October; it will be a Happy Halloween at NiCHE!

Animal History Group Summer 2022 Conference: MOVEMENT

Panel IV: Conservation. 25—26 July 2022.

Presenting on research workshopped at NEAR-EH via the University of Maine June 2022: “A Westerner Can’t Come East and Contract Himself and Live With Any Comfort”: Range Expansion and Coyote Mythologies in New England Print Media 1850–1910” during Panel IV alongside co-panelists Monica Vasile (Maastricht University) and Tanya Richardson (Wilfrid Laurier University).

STUFF STORIES: A STILL LIFE

NiCHE / Historie Source | Source Story Collaborative Series, Ed. Blair Stein. 12 July 2022.

“The still life is a rite of passage for the art student, but a discussion of what still life actually is predicates the satisfying drag of charcoal across paper. “All components must be non-living,” I can still hear the words of an exasperated high school art teacher of mine say, “yes, skulls and bones count. Bicycle wheels, too.” She defined it for us simply as a group of “inanimate objects” no longer connected to the force of their life, or those which never possessed life to begin with […] Turning to Donna Haraway, historians can approach the “contact zone” of the questions reflected in the dialogue between my classmates and our teacher. They approach the same question in much the same way that Haraway does: “whom and what do I touch” when I touch my botanical specimen? Do I touch a living being or a thing?”

European Society for Environmental history (ESEH): postcards for unstable times 2022

“Dear (Past) New England,” 27 June 2022.

The ESEH’s “Postcards for Unstable Times” series allows environmental historians and humanists to explore “alternative ways to showcase stories, environments, and landscapes.” Contributors write through time: “to the future from the present, the present from the past, or the past from the future” in order to open “windows of opportunity that may provide alternative readings of the world in times of crisis and radical change.”

Northeast and Atlantic Region Environmental History Forum (NEAR-EH) 2022: Backyard Environments: Encountering Nature at Home

“A Westerner Can’t Come East and Live With Any Comfort”: Nationalist Mythologies of C. Latrans Range Expansion, Indigenous Hatred, and the Rise of the Coyote as Folk Villain in The New York Times 1865–1910.” 24—26 June 2022.

“The Northeast and Atlantic Region Environmental History Forum (NEAR-EH) brings together a group of scholars exploring the environmental history of the northeastern United States and northeastern Canada […] hosted by the University of Maine’s Canadian-American Center at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, Maine […] The workshop theme this year is “Backyard Environments: Encountering Nature at Home.” The organizers welcome submission of papers that reflect the reality that many of us have been spending more time at home recently and reflecting on the green spaces nearby”

Glass Ghost - Essay and Mapping Project

The Queer Cartography of an Unruly Revenant, The Otter, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), Succession II: Queering the Environment Series, Ed. Addie Hopes, Jessica M. DeWitt. 22 June 2022.

“Hugh Glass was dead: to begin with. The American frontiersman best known for his violent encounter with a Grizzly bear in 1823 — and his subsequent journey for revenge against those who left him for dead — is an unruly, revenant being. Reanimated with each new artistic reincarnation, this hypermasculine, bear-battling folk hero of the American wilderness is arguably more myth than man. “Old Glass” has a pension for confounding new scholars in no small part because his story — as is often the case with legends — does not follow a linear narrative. His myth travels between ecologies, nations, and borders. His “wild body” is all over the map, “flickering in and out of meaning” at its boundaries.” A map which aims to provide perspective on the Hugh Glass folk legend and historical journey accompanies this project.

Bucknell University Summer Institute 2022: Non/Humanity

“But Being a Woman Facing the Most Desperate Odds:” Wolf Killing, Gender Heroism, and the Lupine Villains of North American Print Media 1880 — 1910.” 6—17 June 2022.

This study will examine interactions of settler femininity with North American canids in late nineteenth century print media. It will present selections from American newspapers which depict the way these interactions are gendered and prove those depictions dependent upon non-human environmental villains. It seeks to bridge existing research gaps and uproot their dark foils in accounting for the extent to which gendered environmental mythologies harm non-human communities at a key climatological moment. It builds on analyses which consider print media as a liminal space and “negotiating ground” for gender, of frontier as a gendering space, and confronts incomplete critical frameworks for the heroic which neglect harm done to non-human communities: where there are heroes, there indeed are villains.