{"id":12124,"date":"2022-10-13T22:07:21","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T22:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/?p=12124"},"modified":"2022-10-13T22:12:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T22:12:19","slug":"event-recap-ecological-rhetorics-in-vivo-in-situ-precarity-infrastructure-across-borders-with-dr-jennifer-clary-lemon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrdblog.org\/event-recap-ecological-rhetorics-in-vivo-in-situ-precarity-infrastructure-across-borders-with-dr-jennifer-clary-lemon\/","title":{"rendered":"Event Recap: Ecological Rhetorics in vivo\/in situ: Precarity Infrastructure Across Borders with Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Wednesday, October 5, the DePaul WRD community was joined by WRD alumna Dr. Jennifer Clary-Lemon, who restarted the in-person Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders Speaker Series! Her presentation, \u201cEcological Rhetorics in vivo\/in situ<\/em>: Precarity Infrastructure Across Borders.\u201d examined both \u201chuman and nonhuman elements of the rhetorical situation . . . in vivo\/in situ<\/em>,\u201d that is, \u201cin living bodies and on site.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

Clary-Lemon, rhetorician and associate professor at the University of Waterloo, shared her examination of \u201cprecarity infrastructure\u201d\u2014measures that act as mitigation for human harms against the environment, often without success. In her presentation, Clary-Lemon discussed her field research on two particular infrastructures\u2014barn and bank swallow structures and artificial owl burrows\u2014as well as how they shape human and nonhuman interactions with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n

To begin, Clary-Lemon dove into the field research she conducted between April and June 2019, where she examined barn and bank swallow structures built along highways in Southern Ontario. She explained that these structures were initially built to comply with the Canadian Species at Risk Act (SARA) in an attempt to mitigate the harmful effects of habitat destruction. She later realized, during travels to Europe, that similar structures were propping up elsewhere in response to similar laws, such as a specific artificial swallow nester in the center of Paris, France. Unfortunately, as Clary-Lemon notes, many of these structures were not actually housing the swallows they were built to attract\u2014forcing us to ask if such initiatives are genuine mitigative measures or \u201cjust a feel-good operation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

Clary-Lemon also discussed the fascinating construction of artificial burrows built for the Western Burrowing Owl in Phoenix, Arizona, and Manitoba, Canada. Many of these substitute habitats, intended to replace the birds\u2019 preferred environment, once again sat uninhabited. As Clary-Lemon pointed out, \u201chuman interventions do not equate to habitat, no matter how hard we try.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

Yet, among these situations of failed mitigation, Clary-Lemon also acknowledged how rhetorical analysis opens intriguing opportunities to shape improved conservation efforts in the future. First, she pointed out how precarity infrastructure acts persuasively both on human and nonhuman species, and gives us several questions through which to examine human behavior:<\/p>\n\n\n