Graduate Student Talk: Taylor Michael Bailey

Join MIT doctoral student, Taylor Michael Bailey of the History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society Department for a new perspective on the work of artist Alan Michelson featured in Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere.

This talk will explore the history of ideas in federal and state wildlife management in the United States over the course of the twentieth century. At the same time that American wildlife managers initiated large scale programs to systematically eradicate large carnivores, leaders in the conservation movement began pursuing ambitious projects aimed at restoring species of game animals that recreational hunters desired. For much of the century, eradication coexisted alongside restoration within the wildlife management profession, resulting in the widespread abundance of some animals and the regional extirpation (or near extinction) of others, namely predator species, such as the endangered red wolves featured in Alan Michelson’s Wolf Nation. Like Michelson, Bailey’s research probes questions about historical multispecies relationships, the politics of endangered species, and the legacies of environmental conservation and setter colonialism.

About the Speaker

Taylor Michael Bailey is an environmental historian of the United States and a PhD candidate in HASTS (History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society) at MIT. His dissertation, tentatively titled “Restoration Nation: Game Management, Sport Hunting, and the Science, Politics, and Practice of Wildlife Conservation in the United States, 1871-1973” examines the history of efforts to actively restore—rather than simply “protect,” though laws and regulations—imperiled wildlife species, from the beginnings of the conservation movement in the late nineteenth century to the passage of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. He aims to understand how ideas and practices about restoration changed over time, how science, politics, and policy shaped restoration decisions, as well as the social and environmental consequences of historical conservation projects. Bailey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Otterbein University and a Master of Arts in History from Portland State University.

Graduate Student Talks

MIT graduate students explore current exhibitions at the List Center through the lens of their own research, background and interests. Join us for this interdisciplinary lecture series where we dive into how art and research are overlapping on MIT’s campus.