Zeitgrad seeks to delve beneath the surface of contemporary cultural and political issues by uncovering historical or unconsidered connections between the current contemporary moment and academic research from a wide cross-section of fields. The majority of guests on Zeitgrad are graduate students and early-career scholars who share their expertise to elucidate a topic of interest from the day’s headlines. These discussions seek to provide a deeper, more nuanced understanding of contemporary issues by approaching them from a new perspective and providing additional context, all of which is informed by the rigours of academic research.
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Episode 3 – Bees, Climate Change, and the Victorians
My guest on this episode is Alyce Soulodre. Alyce is a fellow PhD candidate here at Queen’s University in the Department of English Language and Literature. Her dissertation work concerns bugs, the monstrous, and the Victorian period. Join us as we chat about climate change, the importance of bees, and the politicization of ecology in both the Victorian and contemporary periods.
Further Reading
Alyce was kind enough to provide a couple of links to other texts about bugs and the Victorians:
- Clark, J.F.M. Bugs and the Victorians, Yale UP, 2009.
- Kohlt, Franziska. “How Nineteenth Century Britain Became Obsessed with Insects.” National Insect Week, Royal Entomological Society, 2020.
Articles and images referenced during the podcast:
- Cruikshank, George. “The British Bee Hive.” London, 1867.
- Parkins, Wendy, and Peter Adkins. “Victorian Ecology and the Anthropocene.” Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, vol. 26, 2018, pp. 1–15.
- Soth, Amelia. “Insect Jewelry of the Victorian Era.” JSTOR Daily, 16 Jan. 2020.
Contact
Interested in being a guest on a future episode of Zeitgrad? Drop me a line and I will add you to the database for when a relevant topic or episode comes up.