Events

Environmental History Seminar

Biological Exchange in the Pacific World in the Age of Industrial Sugarcane Plantations

Lawrence Kessler, Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Comment: Nancy Shoemaker, University of Connecticut
Tuesday, March 12, 2019, 5:15PM - 7:30PM

This paper traces how sugarcane planters directed circulations of plant and animal species in the Pacific World. This new biological exchange served the political and economic interests of the plantation owners and their allies. Planters, however, were unable to control the biological exchange processes they created. This paper thus argues that through the creation of new patterns of biological exchange, sugarcane plantations induced ecological changes throughout the Pacific World.

To RSVP: email seminars@masshist.org or call (617) 646-0579.