Jessica Balling, fellow of the 1st cohort and now researcher at the Working Group “Glokale Entwicklung und Nachhaltigkeitsforschung” at the University of Innsbruck, published her dissertation on “Nationalpark und Nation. Sozial-räumliche Aushandlungen durch Naturschutz und Kulturerbe in Argentinien und Slowenien” with transcript.
This is the blurb of her book:
“National parks are far more than just nature reserves: they are places where nations are presented, experienced, and negotiated in socio-spatial terms. Using Argentina and Slovenia as examples and drawing on theories of place, practice, and nation, Jessica Balling demonstrates how nature (and nature conservation) serves as an anchor for national identities; how the staging of cultural heritage encompasses both remembrance and forgetting in nation-building; how a socio-ecological understanding of nature conservation fosters a hybrid conception of nationhood; and what role animals and plants play in this process. In doing so, she offers an innovative cultural and political-geographical perspective on national parks that is relevant far beyond disciplinary boundaries.”
We are delighted to see her interesting study in form of a monograph and congratulate Jessica!