Yamamoto Satomi

ProfileThe Carp Divide: How Fear Endures by Changing Its Objects This project investigates how fear, belonging, and environmental governance are shaped through the figure of the carp in the United States. It traces the historical transformation of carp from a valued food source, known as “German carp” in the late nineteenth century, to a stigmatized invasive species, labeled “Asian carp” in the early twenty-first century. The analysis explores the intersections of ecological risk, racialization, and state management over time. By centering fish rather than human subjects, the study demonstrates that fear can become socially consequential without direct human suffering, explicit moral claims, or episodic crises. This approach reveals forms of governance and belonging that operate through nonhuman mediators and endure across temporal scales. Drawing on archival materials, policy documents, media discourse, and social theory, the research develops a framework for understanding persistent and ambient forms of fear that extend beyond moments of crisis, emphasizing how nonhuman figures serve as sites for reorganizing social boundaries and long-term governance of belonging.