Abstract
Land in Alaska is changing and has been for a while. In ‘the Last Frontier’, as the state is officially nicknamed, the twinned processes of settlement and cultivation have made and unmade land in different ways and at different times, often in the wake of intensive projects of resource extraction. Gold, and later oil rushes brought people to the state in waves, and wherever people came, some chose to stay. Since the 1930s, and with increased intensity since around the 90s, a newer sort of resource is drawing people to the state. In the process, many of the vistas closely associated with depictions of Alaska – rushing rivers, deep valleys, stark mountains, and seemingly endless forests – are also being wrapped up in a newer kind of Alaskan landscape: farmland.
In this LandUse seminar, drawing from almost six months of masters fieldwork with small-scale, rural farmers in southcentral Alaska, I want to present some of the ways settlement and cultivation processes unfold in ‘the Last Frontier’ today, particularly in the pursuit of what is often framed as “the good life”. By taking a historical perspective as well, I also want to show some of the ways contemporary agricultural projects are shaped by the narratives and practices of the explicitly colonial projects that shaped the earlier days of Alaskan (and Pan-American) frontier settlement. Ultimately, I hope to show how farming in Alaska might provide fresh perspectives on the new and old ways a 21st century frontier takes shape. With an attention to some of the assemblages of animals, plants, humans, and soils that are enveloped in these projects, I also want to shine a light on what it might mean to be grown in ‘the Last Frontier’.
I am in the early stages of shaping this material into an article for Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift and invite your feedback, input and critique throughout the seminar related to theme, direction, or content.
This will be a hybrid seminar with in-person meeting at SAI (see details in the event information above the photo), and digitally on Zoom.
Language
This seminar will be held in English.
About LandUse
LandBruk (LandUse) is a group of researchers and students associated with the NorLab research group, who come together to discuss anthropological perspectives on land-use in the Nordics.