dr. Kate Huber

Bio

I am Assistant Professor of Digital Art, Ecology, and Communication in the Department of Culture Studies at Tilburg University. I specialize  in postcolonial environmental justice, cultural analysis, eco-media theory, and postcolonial studies, with a focus on anglophone Irish, African, and Caribbean literatures and cultures, including diaspora cultural production in Ireland and the UK. My first book project draws on literature, film, and archival photography and radio to explore how development projects shape social relations, material landscapes, and cultural production in twentieth century Ireland. My current research explores intersections of environmental justice and migration. I enjoy teaching a broad range of cultural and media studies topics and theories.

Expertise

My research examines the environmental impacts of empire to revise how we theorize race, gender, and class in the environmental humanities. Transatlantic cultural production from Ireland, the Caribbean, and Africa reveals understandings of place, belonging, and indigeneity that are foundational to postcolonial environmental justice. Understandings of identities and attachments to local environments come into tension, however, with conceptions of migration and diaspora amid postcolonial modernization projects and extraction economies that draw people and resources to the imperial center. The historical and interdisciplinary focus of my projected first book on Irish modernization lays the foundation for my current research projects on environmental justice, eco-media environments, and human and nonhuman migration in Europe. 

Teaching

My courses draw on a broad range of interdisciplinary methods and theories to analyze  art, culture, and media from historically and culturally specific contexts. This interdisciplinary approach gives  students the flexibility to build skills while delving into topics that are deeply meaningful to them, thereby helping us all to better understand society today. In general, I engage with project-based and collaborative learning practices through which my classrooms become supportive but brave communities of learning where students feel free to ask hard questions and take risks. Through these strategies, my courses seek to cultivate curiosity and growth as well as recognize the diverse range of expertise students and teachers bring to class discussions, university research, and community engagement.

Courses

• Humanities in the Digital Age
• Participatory Art
• Fem Artists & Intellectuals in Pub Sph
• Digital Media Aesthetics
• Intermediality
• Interpretation of Cultural Expressions
• New Private and Public Spheres

Collaboration

I am currently collaborating with scholars from the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) and the Tilburg School of Law to develop interdisciplinary environmental justice methodologies for understanding migration, place, and indigeneity in Europe. This project comprises workshops with students, a research colloquium, and two guest lectures on environmental justice at the local public library to build bridges between Tilburg University and the broader community.

Recent publications

1. ''The bog is a technology of its own”: Rupturing the Logic of Natural…

   Huber, K. M. (2024). ''The bog is a technology of its own”: Rupturing the Logic of Natural Resource Development in Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s The Pipe. ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 31(1), 176-199.

2. “'You will see beauty when this forest grows': Migration, Environment…

   Huber, K. (2024). “'You will see beauty when this forest grows': Migration, Environment, and Belonging in Denise Chaila’s Music Videos Anseo and Duel Citizenship". Paper presented at The Aesthetics of Geopower: Imagining Planetary Histories and Hegemonies.

3. “Aural Interruptions: The Politics of Sound in Teresa Deevy’s Radio P…

   Huber, K. (2023). “Aural Interruptions: The Politics of Sound in Teresa Deevy’s Radio Plays”. Paper presented at American Conference for Irish Studies.

4. Decolonizing Irishness: Assertions of Afro-Irish Self-Determination i…

   Huber, K. M. (2023). Decolonizing Irishness: Assertions of Afro-Irish Self-Determination in Nicky Gogan and Paul Rowley’s Seaview and Melatu Uche Okorie’s This Hostel Life. Interventions, 25(6), 775-804.

5. “Media, Myth, and Music: Reclaiming the Land and Languages of Afro-Ir…

   Huber, K. (2023). “Media, Myth, and Music: Reclaiming the Land and Languages of Afro-Ireland in Denise Chaila’s Anseo”. Paper presented at Association for the Study of Literature and Environment.