RCCHC "Science, Technology, Society and Culture" Talk Series 18 - Rocks that Made Bodies: Doing Environmental History by Following Things

This talk introduces two case studies, one about flood control in premodern China and the other about dam construction in mid-20th-century China. Both cases feature rocks, the ubiquitous and banal things of the earth. By following where rocks go and observing how they act, I offer a methodological meditation on how to pursue environmental history by privileging things, their diverse materialities, and their capacities to make worlds and histories.