American Studies Ecocriticism and Citizenship Thinking and Acting in the Local and Global Commons Joni Adamson and Kimberly N. Ruffin (2012).pdf

Publication Date: December 18, 2012 | ISBN-10: 0415628237 | ISBN-13: 978-0415628235
This collection reclaims public intellectuals and scholars important to the foundational work in American Studies that contributed to emerging conceptions of an "ecological citizenship" advocating something other than nationalism or an "exclusionary ethics of place." Co-editors Adamson and Ruffin recover underrecognized field genealogies in American Studies (i.e. the work of early scholars whose scope was transnational and whose activism focused on race, class and gender) and ecocriticism (i.e. the work of movement leaders, activists and scholars concerned with environmental justice whose work predates the 1990s advent of the field). They stress the necessity of a confluence of intellectual traditions, or "interdisciplinarities," in meeting the challenges presented by the "anthropocene," a new era in which human beings have the power to radically endanger the planet or support new approaches to transnational, national and ecological citizenship. Contributors to the collection examine literary, historical, and cultural examples from the 19th century to the 21st. They explore notions of the common—namely, common humanity, common wealth, and common ground—and the relation of these notions to often conflicting definitions of who (or what) can have access to "citizenship" and "rights." The book engages in scholarly ecological analysis via the lens of various human groups—ethnic, racial, gendered, coalitional—that are shaping twenty-first century environmental experience and vision. Read together, the essays included in American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship create a "methodological commons" where environmental justice case studies and interviews with activists and artists living in places as diverse as the U.S., Canada, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and the Navajo Nation, can be considered alongside literary and social science analysis that contributes significantly to current debates catalyzed by nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, hurricanes, and climate change, but also by hopes for a common future that will ensure the rights of all beings--human and nonhuman-- to exist, maintain, and regenerate life cycles and evolutionary processes

Review
"This collection makes the concept of ‘ecological citizenship’ both accessible and urgent, and as a whole, these essays offer a vital missing chapter in the history of American Studies' engagement with environmental activism and scholarship." --Annette Kolodny, Professor Emerita of American Literature and Culture, the University of Arizona, author of The Lay of the Land, The Land Before Her, and In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery

"In this landmark volume, Adamson and Ruffin bring together sociologists and humanists, historians and ecocritics, ethnic studies and environmental studies, to explore a wide range of American texts and topics, times and places, human groups and socio-ecological concerns, disclosing a diversity of local interconnections between social justice and sustainability in globalizing world. In its multidisciplinary reach, historical depth and intellectual rigor, this outstanding collection sets a new agenda for transnational environmental American Studies."--Catherine Rigby, School of English Communications and Performance Studies, Monash University

"American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship is a long overdue intervention into American Studies, and a signal contribution to reorienting literary/cultural environmental studies. It offers a rich argument for the connection between the human and social sciences, and social and environmental justice on a global, transnational scale. Highly innovative, the contributions from both well-established and emerging scholars, balance well between larger conceptual issues and key case studies from around the globe."--T.V Reed, Lewis E. and Stella G. Buchanan Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies, Washington State University

About the Author
Joni Adamson is Associate Professor of English and Environmental Humanities at Arizona State University, US.

Kimberly N. Ruffin is Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Languages at Roosevelt University, US.

Product Details
Series: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
Hardcover: 290 pages
Publisher: Routledge (December 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415628237
ISBN-13: 978-0415628235