Anthropology Colloquium Series - Andrew Mathews, UC Santa Cruz

MOVING LANDSCAPES: BIO-GEOMORPHOLOGY, WILDFIRES, AND THE POLITICS OF FORM IN ITALY How do slowly growing trees, rapidly growing grasses, grazing animals and fires reshape landscapes? What kinds of politics respond to the sensing and grasping capacities of plants, from terrace building and landscape drainage, to tree planting in riverbeds and on coastlines? Using examples from the Central and Southern Apennine mountains of Italy, I explore the politics of plant form and ecological disturbance that reshape pastures, hillsides, drainage systems and coastlines. I argue that arguments from form mo…