The Pulse

Becoming Water. Photo by Shella Pree Bright.

The PulseFebruary 28, 2022

Becoming Water: Black Memory in Slavery’s Afterlives

By Makshya Tolbert

Tolbert wades into the liminal, haunted space that exists between water and Black memory, navigating Black lineages of thinking and practice to embark on her own return to water.

Emergence Magazine

Star knowledge augmented reality. Image courtesy of Marlena Myles.

The PulseFebruary 28, 2022

Honoring History with Marlena Myles’ New Augmented Reality Installation, ‘Dakota Spirit Walk’

By Jim Walsh

This public art installation uses augmented reality to guides users through the historic village of Kaposia.

MinnPost

Education Engagement Indigenous Perspectives Minnesota

Rio Gallina, in New Mexico. PHOTO BY CHRISTINA SELBY

The PulseDecember 15, 2021

The Rights of Rivers

In New Mexico, water managers, Indigenous communities, and environmental groups pioneer laws and policies that keep water in rivers for the rivers’ sake.

Biological Sciences Planning / Policy Policy United States

The PulseNovember 16, 2021

Water Is Wealth

By Sara Jensen Carr

The future of Oʻahu could exemplify a watershed urbanism that re-roots design and planning in Indigenous knowledge, and de-engineers more than a century of settler colonialism.

Places Journal

Environmental History Planning / Policy Policy United States

The PulseJune 1, 2021

Just Sustainability: Fayola Jacobs—Challenging Institutional Conventions

By Clement Loo

Podcast creator Clement Loo speaks with Dr. Fayola Jacobs about growing the content and format of academic discourse in the hopes of making it more inclusive of a broader range of people and perspectives.

Just Sustainability Podcast

Education Environmental Justice Minnesota Planning / Policy

Workers assess damage following the collapse of a spillway at the 50-year-old Oroville Dam in California in 2017. FLORENCE LOW / CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES

The PulseJune 1, 2021

Water Warning: The Looming Thread of the World’s Aging Dams

By Fred Pearce

Tens of thousands of large dams across the globe are reaching the end of their expected lifespans. These deteriorating structures pose a serious threat to hundreds of millions of people living downstream.

Yale Environment 360

Civil Engineering History International Research

Map of the future of water showing that wetter areas are getting wetter and drier areas are getting drier.

The PulseJune 1, 2021

A Map of the Future of Water

By Jay Famiglietti

The availability of fresh water is rapidly changing all over the world, creating a tenuous future that requires attention from policymakers and the public. These global changes are altering where and how we get fresh water, sparking the need for worldwide cooperation.

The Pew Charitable Trusts

Geography International Planning / Policy Policy

Painted image of Abigail Echo-Hawk, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and director of the Urban Indian Health Institute

The PulseDecember 9, 2020

COVID-19 data on Native Americans is ‘a national disgrace.’ This scientist is fighting to be counted

By Lizzie Wade

The full impact of Covid-19 on Indigenous communities in the U.S. is unclear because of racial misclassification and the exclusion of Indigenous communities from data sets and analyses used to make health policy decisions.

Science

Indigenous Perspectives Research United States

Map of Indigenous peoples' lands of western hemisphere

The PulseDecember 9, 2020

Native Land

By Victor Temprano

Mapping Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see history and contemporary conditions. It creates spaces where non-Indigenous people can learn more about the lands they inhabit, the history of those lands, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together.

Native Land Digital

Education Indigenous Studies International

Hand-drawn map with Duluth and Lake Superior at the center

The PulseDecember 9, 2020

Exploring the Map: The Mississippi River (from North America: Portrait of a Continent)

By Anton Thomas

Explore North America through this contemporary hand-drawn map and this video, that follows the Mississippi River and explores more than just the banks of the river, including Chicago, the Ozarks, and Acadiana.

YouTube

Artistic Expression Engagement Geography North America

Issue Contents

Introduction

Introduction to Issue 25 | Rivers & Borders

On a map, the defined line of a river makes a compelling case for becoming a border. The line crisply delineates one space from...

By Laurie Moberg, Editor

Feature (Peer Review)

Socio-Ecological System of Flooding in Bucksport, South Carolina

There is growing awareness that climate change has the potential to deepen inequalities, especially regarding the threat of riverine flooding. For example, the United...

By Geoffrey Habron and John Roper

Feature (Peer Review)

A Fluid Border: The River Tamar and Constructed Difference in Travel Writing of Cornwall

The Tamar is a relatively modest river. With a length of just 61 miles, and an average discharge at the upper tidal limit of...

By Tim Hannigan

Feature (Peer Review)

The Backbone of America: A New River with the Same Ol’ Bones

The Mississippi River, among many names, is known as “The Backbone of America,” and has played a major role in shaping the lives of...

By Michael O. Johnston

Feature (Peer Review)

Not a Border, But a Path: Swimming Across the Rio Grande

On a cool November day, I floated in the middle of Amistad Reservoir, a lake formed by a dam on the Rio Grande. I...

By Melinda J. Menzer

Geographies

When the Border is a River: A Journey Along the Salween River-Border

Rivers might appear to be a natural or even an expedient way to demarcate political borders. Yet rivers are always in flux as flows...

By Zali Fung and Vanessa Lamb

In Review

The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle

Abandoned homes with boarded up windows. Mold growing up the walls of houses flooded under five feet of water. The charred remnants of entire...

By Julia Oschwald Tilton

Perspectives

A Small but Ultimate Presence

This year the heat of the desert grew, and the absence of water only became more stark against that rapidly rising contrast. Tucson, my...

By Isaac Espósto

Primary Sources

How much is the world’s most productive river worth?

How much is the world’s most productive river worth? Here’s how experts estimate the value of nature: Southeast Asia’s Mekong may be the most important...

By Stefan Lovgren

Teaching and Practice

Creative Connections with Rivers: A Toolkit for Learning and Collaboration

We are three people who draw on research and practice to create arts-based learning, engagement materials, and interventions with and for diverse audiences. We...

By Stephanie Januchowski-Hartley, Ioanna (Daphne) Giannoulatou, and Merryn Thomas

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