Soil and Ocean

Sigrid Schmalzer is a scholar of modern China and the history of science. She is the author of numerous works for academic audiences along with a children’s picture book, Moth and Wasp, Soil and Ocean: Remembering Chinese Scientist Pu Zhelong’s Work for Sustainable Farming. 

The videos on Sigrid’s “Soil and Ocean” channel encourage learning and teaching about history in ways that inspire global solidarity, justice, and sustainability. The name evokes a fundamental principle of science as idealized in recent Chinese history. “Soil” represents knowledge that is local, rural, folk, and/or Chinese. “Ocean” represents knowledge that is global, urban, professional, and/or foreign. When we value diverse forms of knowledge, and when we work in solidarity to combine them, we can arrive at solutions to our problems that are stronger, more sustainable, and more just. This is also consistent with the principle of "solidarity science" that undergirds Sigrid's work with Science for the People.