Stupid Little Fish: Extraction, Conservation, and the Politics of Environmental Decline, with Caleb Scoville, 4/2
48 Professors Row
Join us April 2 for a conversation with Caleb Scoville from the Department of Sociology about the Delta Smelt, and the controversies surrounding this small fish.
The Delta Smelt is an endangered fish found only in the heart of California’s water distribution system. Legal protections of the species have contributed to the curtailment of water delivered to farms and cities. Rocketing onto the national political stage, it was dubbed a “stupid little fish” on the floor of the United States House and was falsely blamed for Los Angeles’ disastrous wildfires by President Trump. Following the fish from California’s water wars to America’s culture wars and back again, this project considers how thorny environmental problems emerge when attempts to control and define nature overflow into other domains of social life, and why they often only seem to multiply with every attempt to resolve them.
Caleb Scoville is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tufts University and a recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowship. His research centers on the politics of environmental knowledge and the dynamics of environmental controversies. Caleb’s published work has appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Science, and Theory and Society, among other venues. His book project on the case of the Delta Smelt is under advance contract with Columbia University Press.
This event is open to the entire Tufts Community. For questions contact humanities@tufts.edu.
