Hear from MIT doctoral student, Taylor Michael Bailey of the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society Department for a new perspective on the work of artist Alan Michelson featured in "Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere."
This talk explores the history of ideas in federal and state wildlife management in the United States over the course of the twentieth century. At the same time that American wildlife managers initiated large scale programs to systematically eradicate large carnivores, leaders in the conservation movement began pursuing ambitious projects aimed at restoring species of game animals that recreational hunters desired. For much of the century, eradication coexisted alongside restoration within the wildlife management profession, resulting in the widespread abundance of some animals and the regional extirpation (or near extinction) of others, namely predator species, such as the endangered red wolves featured in Alan Michelson’s "Wolf Nation." Like Michelson, Bailey’s research probes questions about historical multispecies relationships, the politics of endangered species, and the legacies of environmental conservation and setter colonialism.