Wilderness is a key theme in environmental history (the history of human-nature relations), reflecting its revered and contested status within American environmentalism and national identity. It has also been the subject of substantial historiographical debate. Most notably, Roderick Nash has defended wilderness, whilst William Cronon has deconstructed it as a social construction. Others, such as Mark Spence, have highlighted how the creation of protected wilderness areas in the United States has removed Native Americans from their lands, while other historians have pointed out the gendered and racialized histories of wilderness. This seminar will demonstrate the origins of the wilderness concept and how it has evolved over time, who it has excluded, and how it has been adapted to new contexts.
- Trainer/in: Katherine Arnold