“Fish…pay no attention to political boundaries”: Tilapia and travel in the making of today’s Indo-Pacific

This talk follows fish in a way that opens up a new kind of interaction for the environmental humanities, Asian Studies, and transregional histories. In particular, it thinks with the travels of the Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus Peters, 1852) in the period between the 1930s and 1960s to show how (and explain why) this fish’s movements were central to the making of today’s Indo-Pacific.

About the Speaker: 
Anthony D. Medrano is the Presidential Young Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College and a faculty member in the NUS Department of History. His teaching and research examine how the histories and legacies of economic life, scientific practice, and biodiversity research have shaped our understandings of Southeast Asia today — particularly as a region of megacities and hotspots. He’s the editor of Lala-Land: Singapore’s Seafood Heritage (Epigram Books, forthcoming) and co-editor with Nicole Aboitz CoUnjieng of a special Philippine-focused issue of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (forthcoming). He’s completing his first book, The Edible Ocean: Science, Industry, and the Rise of Urban Southeast Asia, which is under contract with Yale University Press. His degrees are from Humboldt (BA), Hawai’i (MA,MA), and Wisconsin (PhD).

Date and Time: Thursday, Nov 9, 2023, from 4:30-5:30 pm HST
Location:Tokioka Room, Moore 319.

This event is organized by the UHM Department of Asian Studies and co-sponsored by the UHM Department of Pacific Island Studies, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs.