“From Sea to Sky" Initiative

News from the BRIDGES Flagship Hub on an innovative project: "From Sea to Sky"

A hybrid panel series setting out to dissolve the perceived boundaries between two of the world's most distinct landscapes. Titled "From Sea to Sky", the initiative aims to create a shared intellectual atmosphere where desert and island studies can "breathe the same critical air."

The Archipelagic Mindset

At the heart of the series is the concept of “archipelagic thinking.” This framework, popularised by French poet and writer Édouard Glissant in his 1990 work Poétique de la Relation, prioritises the relationships between sites that might otherwise seem disconnected. Rather than viewing islands or deserts as isolated bubbles, this approach suggests they are actually woven together by shared currents of History, Ecology, and Imagination.

Paradises and Wastelands

The series will examine how these terrains have been historically mischaracterised. From the archipelagos of Taiwan and Hawai’i to the "desert islands" of the American Southwest, these locations often carry the perception of being seen as "paradisiacal" spaces, a label that complicates their ecological and colonial realities. Conversely, the panels will tackle the trope of global deserts as "unpeopled wastelands." This narrative has historically facilitated environmental damage and the erasure of Indigenous presence. By looking at these terrains together, speakers will explore how these seemingly separate spaces share a complex contemporary history.

A Collective Dialogue

From Sea to Sky is a cross-disciplinary gathering. The initiative brings together a diverse range of voices, including:

• Academic Experts: Established scholars, early-career researchers, and graduate students.
• Scientific Minds: Scientists specialising in related fields.
• Creatives: Artists, writers, and poets.

By drawing on insights from both local and global contexts, participants will investigate what is gained when we stop looking at places as discrete entities and start seeing them as an archipelago of relations.

Further information can be found here including details of the scheduled panels in this series.