The Howard E. Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series

Land as Material, Habitat, and Knowledge: Constructions of Resource Materialities in Bristol Bay
Bindu Panikkar, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources

How do particular sub-surface resources gain social and political standing? How did mineral extraction gain standing in Bristol Bay, Alaska, the largest wild salmon fishery in the world? How did commercial fishing and subsistence materilaities challenge mineral extraction imaginaries? This research examines the environmental contentions within the permitting of the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska—a dominant discourse in a region that is opening up more opportunities in the Arctic as a result of global warming.