Panel proposal for ASLE 2025: Collective Atmospheres
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
July 8-11, 2025
“The Same Air, Water, and Hope”: Environmental Narratives Through the Razor Wire
In his 1989 essay “A Toxic Shock,” imprisoned activist and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal writes, “Despite the legal illusions erected by the system to divide and separate life, we the caged share the same air, water, and hope with you, the not-yet-caged. We share your same breath.” How can something as violently boundary-setting as razor wire still allow for the circulation of air, water, and hope?