Selin Publishes New Book: Mercury Stories
On October 20, 2020, Henrik Selin, Associate Professor of International Relations and Associate Dean for Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a new book Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element.
In Mercury Stories, Selin and co-author Noelle Eckley Selin – Associate Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT – examine sustainability through analyzing human interactions with mercury over thousands of years. The two explore how people have made beneficial use of this volatile element, how they have been harmed by its toxic properties, and how they have tried to protect themselves and the environment from its damaging effects. Taking a systems approach, they develop and apply an analytical framework that can inform other efforts to evaluate and promote sustainability.
“The book tells stories about human interactions with mercury over 8,000 years, which have both advanced and hindered human progress in complex and sometimes surprising ways,” said Selin of the new book. “Mercury provides a fascinating case for thinking critically about larger issues of human well-being and sustainability. The book also outlines a new analytical framework and approach that can be applied to the analysis of many other critical sustainability issues.”
Learn more and purchase a copy of Mercury Stories on the MIT Press website. More information is also available in MIT Spectrum.
The authors are actively publishing a series of blogs discussing each chapter of the book. The first blog, out now, provides a Spotify playlist with songs that reference or are connected to mercury in its many forms.
On November 10, 2020, Selin presented his new book during a webinar hosted by the Pardee School’s Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center) as part of Land Use and Livelihood Initiative. A recap of this event is now available.
Henrik Selin has been at Boston University since 2004 and his research and teaching focuses on global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. He is the author of EU and Environmental Governance and Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management. He is also the author and co-author of more than four dozen peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Global Environmental Politics. Learn more about him here.