Island Studies News | May 2022

Institute of Island Studies

Dr. Brinklow is no stranger to Island Studies, serving as IIS Publishing Coordinator and research project administrator in the 1990s and 2000s, Coordinator of the IIS and UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability from 2014 to 2020, and as a sessional instructor in the MAIS program since 2014. She herself completed the Master of Arts in Island Studies program in 2007 and went on to do her PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania. Founder of Charlottetown’s Acorn Press, she has published widely in academia and has two volumes of poetry, the most recent being My island’s the house I sleep in at night (Island Studies Press). She is Secretary of the International Small Island Studies Association and Iceland’s Honorary Consul to Prince Edward Island.  

Says Dr. Brinklow, “I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all those who came before me with their own visions for Island Studies: people like Harry Baglole, Brent MacLaine, Godfrey Baldacchino, Jim Randall, Ed MacDonald, Jean Mitchell. They are my mentors and inspirations in this Island Studies journey. And getting to meet islanders from around the world, to be part of a huge Island Studies family – what better way to spend one’s life?”  

As MAIS Coordinator, she hopes to continue to grow the program, solidifying UPEI’s reputation as the premier academic institution in Island Studies. Boasting over 60 graduates and 65 local and international students coming from as far away as England, Taiwan, Egypt, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Nigeria, the interdisciplinary program focuses on island tourism, sustainability, international relations, and public policy on Prince Edward Island and other islands. As Chair of the IIS, she will continue to build on networks and collaborations with UPEI colleagues, government departments, and other institutions in Canada and around the world, being a bridge between the University and the community and focusing on PEI’s economic, environmental, and cultural health and well-being. She will continue to help Island Studies Press’s Bren Simmers produce award-winning publications that celebrate the Island’s culture and stories. And she will continue to work closely with Dr. Jean Mitchell, UPEI’s UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability, to expand small islands’ sustainability across intersecting socio-economic, cultural, aesthetic, and environmental domains in the Pacific and Caribbean. Dr. Brinklow’s own research explores “islandness” and people’s attachment to islands through the language of art in Tasmania, Newfoundland, and other north Atlantic islands. 

The mother of two daughters and soon-to-be four grandchildren, Laurie lives in Charlottetown with her musician husband Michael Mooney and cat Alvin– when she’s not travelling to other islands. 

For more information, please visit islandstudies.com. 
 

Island Studies Press

As always, we'd like to remind you that all of the Island Studies Press books that you read about in our newsletter are available for sale in bookstores and online!

UPEI Bookstore Online | Island Studies Press website

Research Associates

The Institute of Island Studies at UPEI has an active Research Associate program. Here is a taste of what some of our Research Associates have been up to lately:

Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) Students & Alumni

Summer Job Opportunity:
Natural History Education Program Researcher

• Program stream: Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations
• Job title: Natural History Education Program Researcher
• Organization name: PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation
• Job location: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
• Length of assignment: 2022-05-09 to 2022-08-19 (14 weeks)
• Hourly wage: $14.00

If you have an interest in Museum work, particular to natural history and museum education, join us at the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation for the summer! You will visit each of our seven historic sites and identify areas of opportunity to present and interpret the Island’s natural history. You will research information and material specific to those topics identified through site visits.

You’ll get to work at various historic site locations all across PEI with a central base at the Collections Facility in Charlottetown. Our Collections Facility team is a great group of supportive and professional folks who look forward to mentoring the next generation of museum workers. You will support the creation of new public and education programming that can be offered across the province and help Islanders to connect with their natural environment.

This is an ideal position for someone interested in developing museum employment skills for future work in museums and other cultural organizations. You will be studying at the university or college level in a related field (museum studies, visitor experience, education, natural history disciplines, etc). The successful candidate will have a good work ethic, be organized, self-motivated, adaptable, enthusiastic and have good judgement and communication skills; more so, the willingness to learn and take on multiple tasks while working cooperatively with other. Previous research experience would be an asset. The successful candidate must have a valid driver’s licence.

All candidates will be considered including those defined by the Government of Canada job equity groups. Please refer to the eligibility criteria on the YCW website to ensure you are qualified to participate in the program. You will be required to prove your eligibility prior to selection for an interview. Successful candidates must provide a Criminal Record Check.

NOTE: In addition to submitting your application on the YCW site, you must email your resume with a covering letter to: Samantha Kelly, Curator of History: samkelly@gov.pe.ca.

To learn more about the Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) program, visit islandstudies.com/mais-program
 

Islands Matter Webinar 8: Shetland’s Boats Origin, evolution and use by Dr. Marc Chivers

May 5th, Thursday, 12.00PM Thu 05 May
Dr. Marc Chivers discusses his new book Shetland's Boats: Origin, Evolution and Use.

The Islands Matter webinars are the result of a collaboration between Dr Andrew Jennings Institute for Northern Studies UHI, Professor Frank Rennie Lews Castle College UHI and Dr Beth Mouat Shetland UHI. This series of webinars was set up to address the hunger in the Scottish islands to hear from experts based in other islands worldwide, and to help inform the UHI Islands’ Strategy.
His book explores the central role these four and six-oared boats played in everyday Shetland life, meeting boatbuilders and the people whose way of life was centred on, and dependent upon, these seaworthy craft.

Based on his PhD completed in 2017 with the Institute for Northern Studies. Dr Andrew Jennings was the Director of Studies for Marc’s PhD, which was joint funded by the Lerwick Port Authority and Shetland Amenity Trust. The idea for the PhD grew out a discussions with Jimmy Moncrieff chief executive of the Amenity Trust, while on a research trip to the Isle of Man.

Register Online

As always, this is by no means an exhaustive list. If there's something that you think we've missed, or if you have any forthcoming publications that we should be aware of, please let us know!

• The Art of Gardens: An Introduction
  Lissant Bolton & Jean Mitchell
• Drawing on Human and Plant Correspondences on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea
  Porer Nombo, James Leach & Urufaf Anip
• Cassava Spirit and the Seed of History: On Garden Cosmology in Northern Amazonia
  Lewis Daly
• Gardens Without Magic: Tending the Church as the Locus of Growth in a Presbyterian Village, Vanuatu
  Candice Roze
• Gardens Between Above and Below: Cosmotechnics of Generative Surfaces in Abulës-Speaking Nyamikum
  Ludovic Coupaye
• ‘Awakening the Stones’: The Nieri Performance, Gardens and Regeneration in Tanna, Vanuatu
  Jean Mitchell
• More Than: An Afterword
  Marilyn Strathern

Latest Journal Issues:

• Firm local embeddedness in an insular region: The Åland Islands compared to Finland
  Edvard Johansson, Jouko Kinnunen, & Juhana Peltonen
• Measuring destination image of an Italian island: An analysis of online content generated by local operators and tourists
  Valentina Marchi & Antonio Raschi
• Mining for Greenlandic self-government: Fractal islands in the Anthropocene
  Frida Hastrup & Nathalia Brichet
• ‘Splendid isolation’: Embracing islandness in a global pandemic
  Karl Agius, Francesco Sindico, Giulia Sajeva, & Godfrey Baldacchino
• Playing with the Anthropocene: Board game imaginaries of islands, nature, and empire
  Hannah Fair
• Beyond the vulnerability/resilience dichotomy: Perceptions of and responses to the climate crisis on Emau, Vanuatu
  Sophie Ruehr

• Introduction: Water, Land and Vapour: Assemblages and the Imaginary 10.21463/shima.157
  Jun’ichiro Suwa
• Paludal Playscapes: Wetlands as heterotopic ludic spaces 10.21463/shima.112
  Mary Gearey
• Floating Ground: Wetness, infrastructure, and envelopment in Kochi, India 10.21463/shima.147 
  Matt Barlow

• Introduction: Island Feminisms in/on Island Studies: Place, Justice, Movement 10.21463/shima.153
  Marina Karides and Noralis Rodríguez-Coss
• A Breath of Ea: Submergent Strategies for Deepening the Hawaiian Diaspora 10.21463/shima.155
  Mahealani Ahia and Kahala Johnson
• The Opacity of Desire: Queerness, Postcolonialism and Diasporic Belonging in Guadeloupe 10.21463/shima.156
  Aurélien Davennes
• Building a Critical Pinay Islander Framework of Myntoring: A Scholar Warrior’s Navigational Guide 10.21463/shima.154
  Alma M. Ouanesisouk Trinidad

• Shifting Sands, Layering Meanings: A tale of the Goodwin Sands, told through its social production 10.21463/shima.158
  Kathryn Collins
• Always Liminal, Always in Transition: Hong Kong as Staircase City 10.21463/shima.150
  Louis Lo
• Venice Without Cruise Ships: Hard Facts or Fake News? 10.21463/shima.151
  Alexander Araya López
• From Pure Land to Hell: Introducing four culturally hybrid UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Gotō Archipelago 10.21463/shima.130
  Gwyn McClelland

Call for contributions for an edited volume entitled Sea Change: Representations of Transformation in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. 

Deadline for submissions is May 1, 2022.

Seachange n. (from Shakespeare's The Tempest, I. ii. 403) 1: a profound or notable transformation 2: a substantial change in perspective, especially one which affects a group or society at large 3: archaic: a change brought about by the sea

The proposed volume, Sea Change: Representations of Transformation in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, will consider notable transformations in the context of the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas in the 20th and 21st centuries. We aim to bring together scholarly studies of cultural texts that depict changing human experiences examined through multiple lenses–corporal, psychological, environmental, (infra)structural, and others. Among the questions we encourage contributors to consider are

● how environmental factors influence cultural changes and exchanges in these two regions;
● to what extent cultural, physical, and ideological transformations of human experiences correlate with political and economic changes;
● how human experiences of the Caribbean and Mediterranean continually shape individual, communal, and national identities;
● what two-way exchanges result from contact, conflict, transit, and/or communication between shores and transatlantically between seas; and
● how cultural productions contribute to a greater consideration of human rights and human dignity.

The juxtaposition of the Caribbean and Mediterranean in this volume offers new possibilities for understanding these regions by bringing to light their many parallels and connections. These seas–and the nations whose shores they touch–have witnessed centuries of migration, trade, and cultural contact, often accompanied by human conflict, suffering, and loss. During the late 20th and 21st centuries in particular, profound change has resulted from such interconnected factors as (post)colonial relations, immigration policies, xenophobia, economic exigencies, and tourism, as well as natural disasters and other environmental conditions.

We welcome analyses of cultural texts, including, but not limited to, fictional and nonfictional literature, film, television, theater/performance, and material and visual cultures. Papers should be written in English and may consider the portrayals of transformation in either region or through a transatlantic comparison, broadly defined. Abstracts of 250 words and a short bio of 100 words should be submitted to seachangevolume@gmail.com by May 1, 2022.

Timeline:
- May 1, 2022: Abstract submissions due
- June 1, 2022: Notification of acceptance
- December 1, 2022: Complete essays due (up to 6,000 words, including notes and references)
- February 1, 2023: Editors’ comments sent to contributors
- April 1, 2023: Final revised essays due

Please use the email address  seachangevolume@gmail.com to contact the editors: Jessica Boll, Ph.D. (Carroll University); Marilén Loyola, Ph.D. (Rockford University); Sharon Meilahn Bartlett, Ph.D. (Beloit College).

For more information, see https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/22/cfp-edited-volume-sea-change-representations-of-transformation-in-the-caribbean-and and https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/9682881/cfp-edited-volume-sea-change-representations-transformation

ISLANDS AND TIME - ISLAND TEMPORALITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF ISLAND RESEARCH

by Tomislav Oroz

Date: July 1st, 2022

Subject Fields: Anthropology, Literature, Philosophy, Social History / Studies, Social Sciences

In the context of the social sciences and humanities, research on islands from a variety of disciplines is primarily characterised by spatiality as a fundamental determinant of island cultures. The frequent emphasis on spatiality has resulted in representations of islands as constrained both in everyday life and geographically and marked by a historicised present and a belated modernity. In doing so, the transformative and dynamic character of culture has often been neglected, as well as the heterogeneity of the lived experience of island communities. By placing an analytical focus on island temporalities in relation to the frequently emphasised spatiality of the islands themselves, the intention of this thematic issue is to contribute to the expansion of knowledge on the complexities of island communities and their negotiations of temporalities, but also to engage in the current scientific debate on the poetics and politics of temporality.

Temporality is often uncritically taken to imply a singular and linear flow of time, one colloquially and metaphorically referred to as the passage of time, which overlooks the heterogeneity of temporal experiences and their complex relationship with space. Research inspired by the postcolonial approach has already problematized the phenomenon of temporality beyond deterministic structures of linearity and chronological causality by criticizing the temporal singularity resulting from Western hegemony and capitalist logic. In an attempt to move away from privileged spatialised approaches and guided by knowledge of culturally, historically, and socially shaped experiences of temporality, the temporal turn has opened up a number of stimulating research topics. Taking into account the entanglement of space, class, gender, identity, community, mobility, and culture proves to be a prerequisite for understanding the social production of time in specific cultural contexts. Based on many familiar examples, there is a growing concern for a critical understanding of temporality that goes further than our typical, abstract, clockwise-oriented conception of time. Contemporary time is experienced through radical contradictions as it dictates our everyday activities and marks our language. Notions of “me time” or “no time at all” fundamentally reconfigure our everyday life. “Time is money” parallelly co-exists with longing for “boredom” or “time at a slower pace”. Even now, in the “time of Covid-19” and ecological crises, we crave for relaxation and procrastination to escape possible dark thoughts of what sometimes feels like a not-so-bright future. Awash in a multitude of temporalities, now is the time for ethnographically grounded research that will enable us to think about and beyond the usual perception of time in our everyday lives.

In this thematic issue of Narodna umjetnost – Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research, we approach temporality as a historically and socially situated process, or as a way of being that is created in mutually interconnected processes between individuals and their cultural contexts. Our aim is to provide new perspectives on the diversity of temporal experiences on islands, which are often reduced to essentialized notions of life on the islands, nostalgia for the lost “island tradition”, and rhetoric on depopulation coupled with dramatic appeals to save the remaining island cultural phenomena (traditional architecture, the economy, dialects, food culture, etc.).

We want to reflect on the heterogeneity of lived experiences through the prism of island temporalities conceived as specific historical, social, and cultural modalities of being. It is our goal to refresh our understanding of island temporalities by enriching the spatial perspective for different temporal modalities that shape the way islanders and non-islanders experience time (the role of seasonal rhythms, the echoes of development policies, the co-existence of multiple temporalities, including temporal fragments, expectations, boredom, static notions of time).

We invite you to contribute your papers and thus join us in reflecting on the analytical categories of temporality and developing the vocabulary for thinking about island temporalities. We offer additional thematic directions though the following research questions and topics:

• visions of island futures facing development changes,

• mobility and temporality, • temporality in artistic expression,

• precariousness and temporality,

• temporal distortion of the mainland and islands,

• tourist representations of temporality,

• multiple temporalities and vulnerabilities of island communities,

• environmental temporalities and environmental vulnerability

Narodna umjetnost – Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research is an international peerreviewed, open access journal published by the Institute of Ethnology and Folkore Research. The journal is indexed in Anthropological Index Online (RAI), CEEOL – Central and Eastern European Online Library, DOAJ, EBSCO Humanities international complete, ERIH plus, IBBS – International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, MLA International Bibliography, MLA Directory of Periodicals, Open Folklore, RILM – Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, SCOPUS. Articles are published in English and Croatian in the fields of ethnology and cultural anthropology, folklore studies, philology, ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology and other similar disciplines. Narodna umjetnost is published both in print and online version.

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the NU submission guidelines

Contact Info: 

Guest editors: Tomislav Oroz, PhD (toroz@unizd.hr), Marina Blagaić Bergman, PhD (marina@ief.hr)

Contact Email: toroz@unizd.hr

URL: https://www.ief.hr/en/home/

Shima Special Theme Issue - Coastal waterways, cultural heritage and environmental planning:
Uncertain boundaries among estuaries, deltas, lagoons and fluvial islands

Deadline for submission of 300-word abstract: July 20^th 2022.

Deadline for submission of final papers: April 10^th 2023

As rivers enter seas or lakes they produce coastal waterscapes of various types including alluvial lowlands that comprise dense webs of intersecting river branches that diverge before they reach their final destinations. These webs form lagoons and archipelagos, meander and change course, carry sediments that modify the layout of their beds, and interact with the sea and motion of the waves to create an extraordinary variety of sublittoral morphologies which, where not modified or fixed by human intervention, continue to represent a crucial environmental heritage, a refuge of biodiversity, and a vital opportunity to revive ecological awareness.

Hydraulic knowledge has developed in such wet environments, leading to ever-larger and more complex interventions that have modified the natural layout of many watercourses in order to improve control and divert flood water needed for fertile soil, build canals for irrigation, ditches and drain manifolds, and create flatland areas, barriers and river banks to protect fields and houses from overflowing water. In this context, waterways represent a tangible heritage in relation to specific historic forms of water control, exploitation and representation (mills, dams, locks, dykes, bridges, inland harbours, canvas and historical cartography). Aside from their cultural significance as landscape features, the study of these waterways is crucial for developing sustainable cultural tourism and for improving the relationships between local communities and their heritage in such areas.

Many waterways no longer used for freight traffic have the most interesting and significant potential in terms of river tourism, a growing leisure sector due both to its attraction in terms of mobility, but also thanks to a number of significant ideological and cultural conditions emerging in line with sustainability goals. In this light, the importance of waterways shifts from a mere economic frame of reference to wider cultural and recreational contexts, and proves essential to any intervention of environmental planning. It is subsequently impossible to ignore the accumulation of drains, channels, and ditches toward shorelines. These are in turn connected to an extensive network of additional segments used not only for prevailing drainage needs, but also for the opposing - and increasingly urgent - demand for irrigation. While relationships with navigation were inseparable until the middle of the last century, we are now faced with an amphibious landscape whose anatomy and physiology are extensively formed by intensive agricultural production.

The issue aims to extend the understanding of the concept of waterways in a holistic perspective, pointing out how new perceptions and social attitudes interact with the recovery of ordinary landscapes. Similarly, tangible heritage linked to specific historic forms of water control, exploitation and representation (mills, dams, locks, dykes, bridges, inland harbours, canvas and historical cartography) will be considered as a crucial issue of investigation related to the natural and cultural landscapes that are aimed at boosting the potential of waterways to foster sustainable cultural tourism and improve the relationships between local communities and their heritage. The issue will explore how cultural geography interacts profitably with heritage studies to encourage a common conceptual frame, with strong methodological affinities. This special issue of the journal Shima seeks to bring together novel insights and interdisciplinary academic research from comparative regional case studies to examine the ways in which approaches to rivers and canals are affected by a spatial and cultural turn, focusing on the symbolic meaning of representation as well as an array of heritage practices and activist interventions.

We welcome submissions that engage with the multiple challenges faced by waterways and the role of water heritage — cultural memory, water, politics, art — in addressing urgent water use concerns at the uncertain thresholds of rivers, seas and lands.

Questions we intend to address, but not limited to, include:

Sub-topics include:

Coordinators: Francesco Vallerani and Ifor Duncan (Ca‘ Foscari University) and Philip Hayward (University of Technology Sydney).

Submission of papers

Scholars are invited to submit a 300 word abstract along with 3-4 keywords to ifor.duncan@unive.it (Ifor Duncan) & prhshima@gmail.com (Philip R. Hayward) by July 20^th 2022.

The deadline for submission of final papers is April 10^th 2023 (although earliest possible submission is encouraged). The abstract should clearly state the objective of the paper, the intended findings and their significance to the proceedings, and how these help advance knowledge in one of the special theme topics — or relevant alternatives. Submissions should be made via email and as Word documents.

The abstract should include: title, keywords, and a short bio of 3-4 lines including position, affiliation, and research interests.

• What is the state of the art concerning the specific materiality of inland waterways environments that could be involved in strategies to foster innovative freshwater conservation?
• What continuities and discontinuities shape the governance and management of these waterways, as they become increasingly visible sites of territorial regeneration?
• What is the socio-economic potential of cultural heritage along minor river corridors and historic canals and how can this potential be used to improve regional and economic development?
• What are the social benefits arising from renewed multiple functionalities of minor hydrography networks?
• How can users of inland waterways — including, but not limited to, tourists, boat dwellers, fisher people, artists, activists, environmentalists — come together to balance their understandings of the waterways and their priorities for action in order to ensure water maintains its character of common good?
• Oral history and cultural memory of waterways
• Activist and spatial practices of water defense
• Embodied and situated heritage and art practices and knowledges
• River tourism and heritage
• The tension between delta geomorphology and large-scale engineering interventions
• Representations of changing deltaic and estuarine environments in: art literature, film, TV, (social) media;
• More than human considerations and conceptual perspectives of amphibious terra-aqueous environments
• Eco-pedagogical approaches to fostering contemporary water heritage knowledges
• Aquatic conditions: sediment, chemistry, groundwater, flora and fauna
• Speculative approaches to living and managing coastal waterways

• Society and Ecology in Island & Coastal Archaeology Book Series
  (Read more about the series)

• Islands of refuge, islands of contagion, ISJ 17(1), May 2022. Editor: May Joseph
• Onwards to island sustainability futures: An exploration of the SDGs on islands, ISJ 17(1), May 2022. Editor:  John N. Telesford
• Why is there no non-Western island studies theory?, ISJ 17(2), November 2022. Editors: Adam Grydehøj, Ping Su, Yaso Nadarajah, & Elena Burgos Martinez
• Utopian and dystopian imagination in island literature, ISJ 17(2), November 2022. Editors: Ping Su & Mingwen Xiao