Have you ever wondered about the history of the landscapes around you, how they were shaped and by whom? UCSC Associate Professor of Anthropology Andrew Mathews has and he has studied landscape histories and their transformations in Italy. Now he has published his research in Trees are Shape Shifters–How Cultivation, Climate Change and Disaster Create Landscapes, a closely-documented study of trees and people in central Italy and “how they make sense of social and environmental change” around them. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a widely-ranging conversation with Mathews about landscape histories, human action and ecological change in Italy, California and the rest of the world.
You can read about Mathew’s work on his web site.
(Illustration of chestnut trees by Andrew Mathews.)
