| Title | Unit 2: Soil as Archive |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Amiel Bize (author) |
| Seth Denizen(author) | |
| Jayson Maurice Porter (author) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.63308/63897247289532.unit2 |
| Landing page | https://www.whpress.co.uk/publications/2025/11/05/graspingsoil/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Amiel Bize, Seth Denizen and Jayson Maurice Porter |
| Publisher | The White Horse Press |
| Published on | 2026-03-01 |
| Long abstract | How does soil speak? What are its silences? In this unit we consider the histories that are embedded in, revealed by and erased by soil. Michel-Rolph Trouillot writes: Silences enter the process of historical production at four crucial moments: the mo- ment of fact creation (the making of sources); the moment of fact assembly (the making of archives); the moment of fact retrieval (the making of narratives); and the moment of introspective significance (the making of history in the final instance) (pp. 26–27) This unit builds on the previous unit’s exploration of soil’s ability to hold and reflect historical metabolisms to consider its role in holding, reflecting or obscuring history more broadly. We ask the following questions to frame this unit’s activities and readings: ‒ How can we envision soil as an archive – what does this help us see? What silences are embedded in this archive? ‒ How have soil archives been created and used and in the service of what projects? What erasures are embedded in this process? ‒ How can we reimagine soil as an archive – one that materialises the lasting legacies of imperial histories and racialised social relations? Understanding how social and historical processes manifest materially in the soil can both help us to understand how we live with the legacies of past and ongoing processes, and to take control of the archive – to better understand what those legacies are and how we might reshape them. |
| Page range | pp. 39–46 |
| Print length | 8 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
| Media | 6 illustrations |
Amiel Bize is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University whose research focuses on social and economic transformations at capitalist margins. Her current book project, The Post-Agrarian Question, considers how people make value, in material and meaningful ways, in rural East Africa. She has also published on practices of ‘gleaning’ (claiming the right to leftovers) and is beginning new research on green finance.
Seth Denizen is a researcher and design practitioner trained in landscape architecture, evolutionary biology, and human geography. His published work is multidisciplinary, addressing art and design, soil science, urban geography and agriculture. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts and his book with Montserrat Bonvehi-Rosich, Thinking through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture in the Mezquital Valley came out with Harvard Design Press in the spring of 2025.
Jayson Maurice Porter is an assistant professor of history at the University of Mary- land, College Park where he teaches environmental histories of Mexico, the African Diaspora, oilseed crops, and agrochemicals. He serves as a Black and Indigenous Cli- mate Faculty Fellow at UMD’s Indigenous Futures Lab, a board member of Rutgers University’s Black Ecologies Lab, and a co-designer of the Chicago Teachers Union’s Environmental Justice Freedom School.