Encountering/thinking mosquitos

Abstract

ABSTRACT The essay maps and reflects on some dimensions of human–mosquito interaction in the context of the Arctic and inspired by fieldwork in Finnish Lapland. Rather than developing any particular argument, we seek to document this thinking mosquito as a collection of glimpses, fragments and musings. This impressionistic approach was inspired by conversations among the authors and with environmental humanities scholarship about the roles non-humans play in human worlds, and about how one might engage with mosquitos in thinking about scientific fieldwork, about everyday life in various environments, and about the Arctic more generally. The essay does not provide answers but rather questions, hoping as it does to offer some insights into the complexity of issues that connect mosquito worlds to human worlds. As a mirror to these reflections, we dialogue with excerpts from our own creative written thoughts from the field and from the diaries of German soldiers based in Lapland during the Second World War.