Dear Gep-Ed Colleagues,

I am excited to announce that my book co-authored with Noelle Eckley Selin – 
Mercury Stories: Understanding Sustainability through a Volatile Element – is 
now published by MIT Press!

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/mercury-stories

Mercury Stories examines human interactions with mercury over 8.000 years. 
These interactions have both advanced and hindered human progress in complex 
and sometimes surprising ways. Mercury is a fascinating case for thinking 
critically about larger issues of human well-being and sustainability. The book 
also outlines a novel Human-Technical-Environmental (HTE) framework together 
with a matrix-based approach that can be practically applied to the analysis of 
many critical sustainability issues.

The HTE Framework and the matrix-based approach draws on perspectives and 
knowledge from the natural sciences, the social sciences, and engineering. Yet, 
it is designed in such a way that it does not distinctly privilege one field 
over others. I think that the interdisciplinary nature of the HTE Framework and 
the matrix-based approach can be of interest to a wide range of researchers 
from different areas and disciplines who share an interest in thinking about 
and advancing sustainability.

For those of you who apply systems analysis in your own research, or who teach 
systems thinking and analysis in your classes, we have put up multimedia 
research and teaching resources on our new website 
(https://www.mercurystories.org). For example, you can design individual or 
group projects in class where students use the HTE Framework and the matrix 
approach to examine specific sustainability issues and challenges. There is 
currently one Briefing Note on plastics on the website that shows the steps of 
using the HTE Framework on another topic than mercury (which is detailed in the 
book).

We will also keep adding blog posts related to each of the 10 book chapters. 
The first blog post is up, outlining a Spotify playlist (or, as the older folks 
among us would say, a mixtape) as a soundtrack to the book: 
https://www.mercurystories.org/stories-blog/playlist

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. I am also happy to join 
seminars or your classes virtually to talk about the mercury issue, the book, 
and/or the HTE Framework.

Best,
Henrik

Henrik Selin
Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Studies
Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies
Boston University

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