2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

I am a literary nonfiction writer interested in how laborers in the American Rust Belt see themselves in relationship to nature, how others in the country see them, and what implications this has for in-/exclusivity in the modern American environmental movement. My own father was a welder for three decades; the metal shop where he worked, once a mainstay in our factory town, was shuttered eight years ago. At the summer conference I propose to present excerpts from my creative work on the environmentalisms of this socially, economically, and ecologically complex region.

In spite of Wisconsin’s close association with land stewardship—consider John Muir’s formative years, the sustainable forestry practices of the Menominee Nation, Aldo Leopold’s great ecological restoration experiment—many in my home state and region do not identify with environmentalism. Many of my family members, for instance, have lived in lockstep with legacies such as these; yet most stopped short of professing loyalty to green organizations and movements, preferring to pledge allegiance to the unions. 

Yet with so many Rust Belt workers professing to value nature, public health, and community—principles largely consistent with those of mainstream environmentalists—what explains this dissonance? In the nineties, historian Richard White suggested that mainstream environmentalism had vilified certain kinds of work in nature, especially the blue-collar work of miners, loggers, and laborers like my dad. While a privileged few could shield wild places from all human activity except recreation, laborers in our nation’s industrial cradles couldn’t refrain from “destructive” work in nature.[1]

I will address this dynamic as it relates to social inclusion and the environment in the form of a creative essay, from which I will share excerpts during my presentation.

[1] The thesis resonates with many of my Wyoming students, especially the children of ranchers, oil workers, and coal country laborers.