CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

From Extraction to Regeneration

How can we transition from systems of resource extraction that exacerbate climate instability to a livable world where regeneration is not only possible but inevitable? How do we imagine futures characterized by regeneration when lives are still shaped by the consequences and inequities of extraction? And how are the experiences of extraction and regeneration lived in the U.S. Gulf Coast? Extraction and regeneration are part of daily life and require expertise from a range of domains--from scholars of various disciplines, of course, but also from community partners and civic leaders. What you experience here will be a living and gradually expanding archive of conversations drawing from many kinds of knowledge, addressing as many audiences as possible, and grappling with the urgent circumstances that shape U.S. Gulf Coast and far beyond.

This project began in conversation with and as a contribution to the “Post-Extractivist Legacies and Landscapes” global seminar sponsored by the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon-funded Global Humanities. The project, led by University College Dublin (Ireland) explores the topic across the globe and features collaborations with Tallinn University (Estonia), University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and the School of Culture, History and Language (Australian National University). Rice's Center for Environmental Studies responded to the call to think "post extraction" by focusing on the complex networks of extraction and regeneration in our region and by creating these video vignettes to inform and provoke conversation on what is particular to this region and on what dilemmas and solutions might be shared with others in other places.

In addition to our extraordinary colleagues and community partners featured here, this project was conceived of and shaped by Joseph Campana, the William Shakespeare Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, and Weston Twardowski, program manager of the Diluvial Houston Initiative in the Center for Environmental Studies and Humanities Research Center. Without the extraordinary work of our collaborator, videographer and artist Brenda Cruz-Wolfe, they would not be possible.