Institute at Brown for Environment and Society

Documenting long-term patterns of change in the Arctic’s natural resources

The Bering Strait is a region united by ecology but divided by politics and ideology. In the 20th century, both communist and capitalist development impacted, and were impacted by, the region's challenging ecology.

Breadcrumb

Documenting long-term patterns of change in the Arctic’s natural resources

The Bering Strait is a region united by ecology but divided by politics and ideology. In the 20th century, both communist and capitalist development impacted, and were impacted by, the region's challenging ecology.

Bathsheba Demuth is tracing the history of communist and capitalist ideologies in the region, the interactions with and impacts on local Indigenous communities, and the rise and fall of a variety of Arctic animal resources that resulted from this occupation.

Demuth’s innovative work is shaping the field of environmental history, and exploring novel answers to the questions, how do human ideas transform the environment around us? And, how do environments inform how we think about our ideas?

News

News from IBES

Histories Entwined: A tale of culture, economy and the more-than-human in the fragile High Arctic

In the mid-19th century, a parade of whaling ships set sail from New England. One by one, they swept down the United States’ Atlantic coast, circled South America’s Cape Horn, and finally cruised northward, toward the Arctic edge of the Pacific Ocean.
Read Article