Preparing Periphery: Towards a Cultural Reparation Ecology in the Greater United States

Fall 2022 GGR Recipient

William Shivers (Constructed Environment, School of Architecture)

This project seeks to examine the potential of cultural and environmental repair in the face of the climate crisis in the Greater United States. Focusing on the Big Island of Hawai`i, this project will conduct field work which investigates an ongoing cultural environmental catastrophe: Rapid ‘Ohi’a Death. This pathogen has the potential to kill 50% of Hawaiian forests, causing extreme ecological catastrophe. This project will help to understand how and where the US can actively work to repair its lands and people wrought from violent histories and how that can also actively work to prepare for an uncertain unstable climate.