Before searching for images, you will need to be familiar the key debates regarding ecological discourses. This will help you develop an effective list of keywords to use in your searches. To build that list, it's best to research the news. This page will introduce some sources for news about eco-criticism, ecological discourse, and climate change.
News Research
- Library PressDisplay aka PressReader.comDatabase. Full-color, full-text online versions of some major print newspaper titles, over 700 titles from 55 countries. Use the Publications by Country menu at left to choose USA, France, etc. More reliable sources usually displayed first. Use discretion in picking from these news sources; many popular magazines and non-news sources are included. NB: The last 90 days is available with some exceptions (Chicago Tribune, last 4 days available, for example).
- New York Times Online/nytimes.comThe Student Assembly has purchased access for all Cornell undergraduates only:
sign up for access at http://nytimesaccess.com/cornell/. Students, faculty and staff in the Law School also have unlimited access. All other Cornell users are limited to 10 articles per month without a personal digital subscription. Current and recent articles (last 2 weeks) in plain text format from the print version of the New York Times are available on FACTIVA. - Wall Street Journal Online/wsj.comAvailable free to all Cornell faculty, staff, and students. To set up free access, go to https://partner.wsj.com/partner/cornelluniversity and register. Select your account type from the drop-down menu, add a password, and agree to the Privacy Policy. Then click Create and you have access. Access also available through the Cornell Library catalog.
We have access to thousands of other newspapers online, mostly IN TEXT FORMAT ONLY, through the library catalog. Here is an EXCELLENT guide to doing news research that tells you how to get there: TODAY'S NEWS
News Photos
News Images are also available, but these are just for browsing; we do NOT have a subscription, and these agencies are trying to get you to buy the images (we do not encourage spending money this way!):
Other important sources
Critical Looking Exercise
Keep America Beautiful, “The Crying Indian”, first aired in 1971.
The image of “the crying Indian” (portrayed by Iron Eyes Cody, né Espera de Corti) circulated widely throughout the 1970s, appearing in the above commercial alongside billboards and print. For many, the figure became a symbol of burgeoning American environmentalism. Yet consider the implications of “the crying Indian” as well as the advertisement’s funder, Keep America Beautiful. How does this advertisement rely on and proliferate stereotypes of Indigenous relationships with the “natural world”? Moreover, Keep America Beautiful comprised leading packaging and beverage corporations. What might these corporations have to gain from advertisements like this? How can we critically consider its message of stopping individual consumers from littering?
Deeper Dives
- Ecocriticism 101 Reading ListWritten by Nancy Aravecz of the New York Public Library, this blog post provides a list of foundational texts that spurred and support the eco-critical turn in scholarship. When considering these texts, pay close attention to who the authors are and what is at stake for them regarding their positions in society and the academy.
- Biocultural Diversity & Conservation Research GuideA Cornell Library research guide that provides resources across several forms a media that address discourses of biocultural diversity
- Research in Natural Resources & the Environment: A guide for Cornell NTRES Graduate Students: JournalsA list compiled by Cornell Library of scholarly journals focused on ecology and biodiversity conservation
Indigenous Climate Change
- Julia WatsonJulia Watson is a leading expert of Lo-TEK nature-based technologies for climate-resilience.
Exhibitions
- Art and Environmental Struggle, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 2021This exhibition brings together the work of twenty artists responding to environmental challenges occurring in their countries and communities.
- Fabrice Monteiro: The Prophecy, Chazen Museum of Art, 2019-2020Fabrice Monteiro is a photographer and visual artist who lives and works in Dakar Senegal. In 2013, he began a project in Senegal called The Prophecy to raise awareness in the local population of the serious environmental scourges that the country suffers as well as the consequences of excessive consumption.
- Plastic Entanglements, Smith College Museum of Art, 2019Plastic Entanglements brings together sixty works by thirty contemporary artists to explore the environmental, aesthetic, and technological entanglements of our ongoing love affair with plastic.
- Water Memories, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2022-2023This exhibition explores water’s significance to Indigenous peoples and Nations in the United States through historical, modern, and contemporary artworks.