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Academic Papers & Books

 

How to Refocus Soil Research When Reacting to the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture
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A profound look at the critical decolonial thinking of Amircal Cabral, which denounces exploitations of humans and exploitation of nature including soils, under colonial regimes, and provides resources for thinking resistance as a socio ecological phenomenon

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Dive into the world of microbial soil remediation from a social scientific perspective in this recent paper

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Looking at farmers' soil management in Norway, this article criticizes the dominance of new materialism in soil care literature and calls for more attention to underlying structures that shape the conditions where care happens

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Land governance has to change to protect communities from climate-induced land grabbing. Conventional land policies have not been powerful enough to stop land grabbing. As land deteriorates, land policies need to focus on making communities climate resilient and preventing vulnerable people from being increasingly locked into the most marginal places

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This paper finds that farmers' different identities play a central role in decision-making about soil conservation, though impact depends on specific practices and settings

To demonstrate the value of community based participatory research in earth and environmental sciences, this article introduces a project that examined and addressed heavy metal concentrations in school garden soils in Oakland, California

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Soil Art

 

Arte-Suelo-Ser Inc., provides free educational activities, from workshops for farmers and students completing their green hours, to community programs for children and their families. In December 2024, they launched the first phase of the Virtual Museum of Caribbean Soils, a living and open-access project to learn about the diversity and importance of our soils 

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Get up close with soil life through Wim van Egmond’s microphotography, including these amazing time-lapse videos

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Happy Poetry Month! ​Call for poetry, prose, nonfiction, art - Plant People, An Anthology of Environmental Artists Vol. 5.

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Call for poetry and art - Plants & Poetry Journal: Rituals & Remedies Vol. 2.

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In a new book publication from Harvard University Press, landscape architects Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich and Seth Denizen explore soil as “a blurry category whose boundaries are both empirically uncertain and politically contested”. In their attentive analysis of the massive, historically fraught agricultural wastewater system of Mexico City, Thinking Through Soil: Wastewater Agriculture in the Mezquital Valley is a thought exercise in “reframing environmental thought, design thinking, and city and regional planning toward a healthier, more ethical, and more sustainable future.”

 

Looking for other speculative tools to think-with soils? Designer Gabby Morrison’s beautifully illustrated Grounded Wisdom offers “a tarot deck based on Soil featuring 78 cards that can be used to connect people to soil and the environment and help innovators and futurists design regeneratively.”

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Introducing another soil artist, Maria Viftrup, whose colourful universe initiates questions and conversations about human relations to more-than-human worlds, ecology, resources, value and waste.

Announcements

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​Do you work on soil remediation? This new issue of PUBLIC explores the social, cultural, political, economic, and historical dimensions of soil care, health, and repair. We solicit original, transdisciplinary research, research-creation, and creative works that bridge critical inquiry and practice and explore soil as a dynamic agent in productive “dialogue” with its surroundings. Submissions addressing any aspect of soil (re)mediation from qualitative, quantitative, theoretical, and conceptual perspectives are welcome

  

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Soil Events

Join Soil Science Society of America for an online panel discussion, “Growing Your Career in Soil Science and Planetary & Space Sciences” on Wednesday, April 16, 2025
At 12:00 - 1:00 PM Central. This session will explore career opportunities at the intersection of soil science, agronomy, and planetary science. You can see a full list of webinars offered by Science Societies. 

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CURIOSOIL is hosting a 3-day conference about soil health on 8-10 April. CURIOSOIL is an EU-funded project that seeks to enhance soil education and soil literacy to improve public understanding of soils. At the moment they are also looking for teachers to join their “Why I Teach Soil” campaign

Soil Science Ladies is a community that empowers women and all marginalized communities in the soil sciences. Visit or join them on Instagram 

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Meeting Soil Science Ladies around the world here 

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