New Species of Environmental Poli5cs: Salmon, Risk, and Resilience in Coastal Alaska Karen Hébert ’96 B.A., F&ES Assistant Professor of Environmental Anthropology Environmental protecSon today is oYen moSvated by the specter of loss. In coastal Alaska, efforts to save sSll-­‐
strong ecosystems threatened by prospecSve mining and logging prompt quesSons about how visions of an environment at risk shape struggles over sustainability. Hébert approaches such quesSons through an analysis of a new brand of environmental poliScs that leverages charismaSc species to bridge presumed divides between conservaSon and development interests. In Alaska, salmon has become an emblem invoked to forge alliances between environmental advocates and business-­‐minded actors. These campaigns reposiSon salmon from a natural resource to an environmental good. Based on ethnographic Hébert shows how taking sides with salmon redraws lines of social struggle. Whereas residents of coastal communiSes once competed to use salmon, they now compete to be useful to salmon as a means of gaining legiSmacy in environmental contests. She argues that while this inspires efficacious acSon, it also unevenly distributes the resources through which successful claims to salmon stewardship might be performed. This reveals both the power and the limits of emergent ways of understanding the environment for mobilizing a kind of environmentalism to transcend histories of divisiveness and inequality for more resilient futures. 12:00-­‐1:00 FREE EVENT in Burke Auditorium, Kroon Hall Lunch will be provided – first come, first served