Date on Senior Honors Thesis

5-2026

Document Type

Senior Thesis

Degree Name

B.A.

Department

Anthropology

Degree Program

College of Arts and Sciences

Committee Chair

Dr. Angela Storey

Committee Member

Dr. Carrie Mott

Committee Member

Dr. Kendra Sheehan

Author's Keywords

More-than-human; multispecies ethnography; urban environments; climate change; humans and insects; cosmopolitics; political ecology; ambassador species; insect conservation

Abstract

The urban environment is viewed as a space exclusively for humans, an idea that has been built into the structure of cities during the process of urbanization, which transforms the landscape in a given area for anthropogenic activity. The process of urbanization can be characterized primarily by the widespread use of asphalt and concrete, as well as the introduction of ornamental plant species, which leaves urban environments more vulnerable to impacts of climate change such as flooding and excessive heat. This transformation also negatively impacts the insect species living within these environments, leading to species extirpation from these spaces. As insect species are in decline globally, conservation of insect species has become critical, yet intervention and advocacy efforts are primarily focused on charismatic ambassador species like bees and butterflies. Prominent negative perceptions of insects in the broader social imagination are proliferating in urban populations, due in part to the perception of urban environments as exclusively human spaces; the lack of potential for positive interactions within urban environments reinforces this perception, and further contributes to an overall negative view of insect species. As such, I argue that incorporating greater consideration for more-than-human species within urban green space creation and climate change mitigation projects would benefit both humans and other more-than-human species, including insects. Intentional positive interactions with insect species in green spaces can work to create greater interspecies appreciation, in turn generating more effort for insect conservation.

Lay Summary

The landscape gets altered in a lot of different ways when a city is being created, most notably with the introduction of new plants not native to the area, and by using concrete and asphalt for roads, parking lots, buildings, etc. This negatively affects the environment within the city, and that impact is worsened because of climate change. Cities are vulnerable to climate change, especially flooding and excessive heat, but not just the people living within them. This thesis focused on how humans and insects interact in cities, and how climate change is impacting those interactions. This is extremely critical because insect numbers are declining rapidly around the world, most especially in urbanized areas; however, there isn’t as much advocacy for insect conservation as there is for other animals, because people hold these negative views of them as pests.    My research found that intentionally interacting with insects in spaces like native plant gardens and community gardens led to more positive perceptions of them, which in turn makes people care more about their conservation.

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