No. 5 ❧ Fall 2024
On the Spotted Lanternfly

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No. 5 features contributions from artists, scientists, historians and anthropologists to consider the larger context of the (infamous to some) Spotted Lanternfly’s arrival in Pennsylvania, its preferred plant Tree of Heaven, parallels of invasive species rhetoric with rising nationalism amid globalization and human migration. What does it mean to be “invasive” to already transformed and evolving ecosystems? Issue No. 5 considers novel coexistence on a planet ravaged by human industry and anthropogenic-driven climate change.

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Contents

Essay
“On the Spotted Lanternfly”, by Erin Mallea and Travis Mitzel

Roundtable
“Long Live the Lanternfly: Invasive Lifeforms, Extermination Campaigns, and Possibilities for Coexistence” April 5, 2024

Excerpt of an interdisciplinary panel at the American Ethnological Society’s 2024 Spring Conference hosted by the University of Pittsburgh. Featuring: Nicole Heller, Ecologist and Associate Curator of Anthropocene Studies, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Kelli Hoover, Professor of Entomology at Pennsylvania State University, Erin Mallea Assistant Professor of Art at Pennsylvania State University, Travis Mitzel, Artist and Instructor at Seton Hill University, Noah Theriault, Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, and Emily Wanderer, Associate Professor of Anthropology, at the University of Pittsburgh.

The panel was organized by Noah Theriault, Nicole Heller and Emily Wanderer.

Essay
“Robots Killing Spotted Lanternflies: When Robotics and Biological Ecosystems Meet,” by Maria Ryabova, PhD Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh.

Poster
Travis Mitzel, “Tree of Heaven and Spotted Lanternfly relationship-sprawl across time, Pennsylvania and beyond”, 2024.

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Credits
Issue Produced by: Erin Mallea and Travis Mitzel
Designer: Erin Mallea
Photography: Erin Mallea and Travis Mitzel
Printed by: K-B Offset Printing and Mixam