Environmental History Resources
Environmental History News
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Monday, 26 July 2010
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society launches occasional papers series
The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society is pleased to announce the launch of its new occasional papers series, RCC Perspectives!
RCC Perspectives is an interdisciplinary series of papers and essays in environmental history, environmental studies, and related fields. The papers have their roots in the scholarly activities of the Rachel Carson Center and in current debates in society. They combine thought pieces and fresh empirical research, and they are designed both to further international dialogue and to inspire new perspectives on the complex relationship between nature and culture. Issues will be available primarily online, though we will also be doing a limited print run for contributors and supporters.
We invite you to check out our first three issues online:
Issue 1: Christof Mauch and Helmuth Trischler
International Environmental History: Nature as a Cultural Challenge
www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/download/publications/issue1.pdf
Issue 2: Christof Mauch
Das neue Rachel Carson Center in München oder Was heißt und zu welchem Ende betreibt man Weltumweltgeschichte?
www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/download/publications/issue2.pdf
Issue 3: Markus Vogt
Climate Justice
www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/download/publications/issue3.pdf
RCC Perspectives will be available free for download from our RCC website:
www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/publications/rcc_perspectives/index.html
Monday, 19 July 2010
New podcast episode: The First World War and the transformation of forestry in British Columbia
A new podcast episode of Exploring Environmental History has been released on the influence of the First World War forestry practice in British Columbia.
During the Second World War thousands of foresters left Canada to serve in the Canadian Forestry Corps in Europe. In Europe, these Canadian foresters were confronted with intensive forest management techniques, unknown to them back home.
After the War British and other European governments appealed to Canada for tree seed to replant the devastated European forests. To meet this demand the British Columbia provincial government established a system for fir cone harvesting, seed extraction and overseas shipment. In this podcast David Brownstein of the University of British Columbia explains how the coincidence of the exposure of Canadian foresters to European forestry management practice and the post-war seed collection were to transform Canadian forestry, leading to the abandonment of the policy of natural regeneration.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Conference: The End of Tradition? Aspects of Commons and Cultural Severance in the Landscape
Sheffield Hallam University, 15th to 17th September 2010
The end of tradition and the impacts then of cultural severance are as big a threat as climate change to biodiversity & ecology - this major event being organised by Prof. Ian D. Rotherham and colleagues will look at the threats to biodiversity from cultural change and the abandonment of traditional management. We have heard much about climate change and the threats that this may pose in the future but ‘The End of Tradition’ is bigger and more current. The threats from global cultural change and abandonment of traditional landscape management increased in the last half of the 20th century and ten years into the 21st century show no signs of slowing down. Their impacts on global biodiversity and on people disconnected from their traditional landscapes pose real and serious economic and social problems which need to be addressed now. The conference will address the fundamental issues of whether we can conserve the biodiversity of wonderful and iconic landscapes and reconnect people to their natural environment.
Visit the UKEconet for further details about this event.
Friday, 9 July 2010
New podcast episode: Island Environmental Histories: the Ogasawara Islands
Islands are complex ecological objects produced through flows of flora, coral polyps, human migration, and global capital. They are places that are constantly being changed through human and non-human action. Therefore, they are wonderfully rich sites for environmental historians, not to mention cultural, economic, and historians of science, to examine. They are less miniature worlds than they are places made by the convergence of worlds. In this podcast Colin Tyner, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, examines the Ogasawara Island group and it environmental histories. Colin will illustrate how different social, cultural and natural worlds converged on the Ogasawara Islands.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Royal Meteorological Society North East autumn seminar series
The autumn seminar series of the North East England branch of the Royal Meteorological Society North East is now available. The series contains a number of talks of interest to climate and environmental historians on the severe winter of 1947 and meteorological activities of Imperial Spain in the Pacific, 1521-1898.
This year’s Gordon Manley Lecture at Durham University is entitled Sagas and sea ice: variations in the climate of Iceland from the Settlement to the present. Professor Astrid Ogilvie, University of Boulder, Colorado, will deliver this talk.
Friday, 4 June 2010
New article added: Volcanic Eruptions and European History
A new article was added to the essays section of the Environmental History Resources website. This article examines the influence of a selection of volcanic eruptions that influenced European history. The article starts with a brief examination of the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland before going on to historical examples. The first historical eruption examines is the Thera eruption of the 2nd millennium BC which ended the Minoan civilisation and catapulted the Mycenaean Greeks on the stage of European history. The second eruption is that of Vesuvius in 79 AD which buried Pompeii and preserved it perfectly as a widow in time on Roman town life in the 1st century. Then the article makes a leap to the Middle Ages and the dust veil event of 536 AD and the possible connection between the 14th century Black Death and volcanic activity. Finally the article returns to Iceland and the eruption of the Laki in 1783 and the dust veil that plagued Europe for months on end.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Authors/ideas sought for new World Forest History Book Series
This is a call for chapter proposals. World Forest History, a new edited book series by the Australian National University E Press, will publish individual volumes of forest history on individual countries and regions of the world. Each book, published in hardcopy and available as a free download, provides a definitive outline of the rise of state and scientific forestry and the evolution of environmental land management practices, with a special focus on colonial forestry and its legacy. The first edited books will focus on the Indian subcontinent and Southern Africa. Subsequent volumes will focus on individual countries and regions in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Individuals with research and publication experience related to the history of humans and forests in these countries/regions are welcome to submit abstracts of possible chronological, historiographical, and thematic chapters and to talk with the editors about possible contributions.
Each book will also feature a substantial section of primary sources related to the history of humans and forests. These selections will include laws, scientific documents, literature, oral history, pictures, art, and other important documents. Authors are encouraged to submit original sources of up to 3,000 words with their chapters.
Gregory Barton, research fellow in environmental history at the Australian National University, is the Editor in Chief of the series. Brett Bennett, a PhD student in history at the University of Texas at Austin, will help to coordinate the series. The series will be affiliated with the Centre for Environmental History at the Australian National University. The Australian National University E press will publish each book in hardcopy form and electronically. Because each book will be available in hardcopy and as a free download, this series should have an enduring presence in libraries and classrooms and will receive maximum exposure and citations.
Please send ideas and submissions to:
Dr Gregory Barton: Gregory.barton@anu.edu.au
Brett Bennett: utxaustinbennett@yahoo.com
Monday, 10 May 2010
CFP: Environments of Mobility in Canadian History
The environment has played a profoundly important role in shaping the movement of people, objects, and ideas in Canadian history. In turn, mobility (travel, transport, and traffic) has had significant impacts on the environment, both in materially tangible ways and in terms of how people have perceived and experienced Canada’s varied landscapes.
Canadian scholars have a long tradition of examining mobility and the environment in the context of moving hinterland resources to metropolitan markets. However, there are many other aspects of the complex relationship between environments and mobility that deserve closer scrutiny. This is a timely moment to broaden and build on the existing Canadian literature in this area, for in addition to environmental history’s emergence as a field of study in this country, recent international developments in sociology, geography, and technology studies have argued that mobility should be brought to the foreground of the humanities and social sciences. We therefore invite scholars from all fields and all parts of the country to contribute papers to an edited collection that will explore natural and built environments of mobility in Canada’s past. The goal of the collection
is to interrogate how the connections between mobility and the environment have shaped Canada’s diverse regions and peoples.
We invite papers on a wide spectrum of historical topics, such as:
- the environmental consequences of specific modes of mobility (including walking, canoes, ships, bicycles, railways, automobiles, urban transit, air travel)
- the impact of mobility on plant and animal life, soils, and bodies of water
- mobility and the seasons
- recreational mobility’s impact on the environment
- mobility’s uneven environmental effects on different social groups
- how mobility, landscape, and the environment have been bound up with local, regional, and social identities
- travel, tourism, and landscape experience
- the culture of commodity flows
- mobility, environment, and state formation
- mobility’s role in shaping Canadian social, scientific, and environmental thought
- the challenges of moving through ‘dangerous’ environments
- mobility and (sub)urban environments
A workshop will be held in Toronto at York University’s Glendon campus in early May 2011. Participants will be asked to write a rough draft of their paper for pre-circulation in order to facilitate useful commentary on each
paper. The ultimate aim of the workshop is to create a series of papers for publication in an edited collection on environments of mobility in Canadian history. Please contact us with expressions of interest by July 15, 2010.
For more information, send queries to ben.bradley@queensu.ca.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
CFP: First Conference of East Asian Environmental History (EAEH2011)
24-28 October 2011, Taipei, Taiwan
The newly established Association of East Asian Environmental History invites papers for its first conference which will be hosted by Academia Sinica, Taipei. The General Theme is: Resource Utilizations and Impacts
The First Conference of East Asian Environmental History (EAEH2011) aims to provide an opportunity for scholars to learn from each other and to identify important environmental issues with historical perspectives. We need to gain new insights through comparative studies and to learn from each other with regard to methods and sources. We invite papers dealing with themes suggested above for East Asia in any period. Although the study of environmental history is closely related to local histories and situations, we need to explore and identify common factors that have been influential beyond local and national boundaries.
Visit the website for more details and to submit a proposal.
Wedneday, 6 August 2008
New MSc in Landscape, Environment and History: recruitment now open
Online interface of MSc
The University of Edinburgh's new MSc in Landscape, Environment and History has started to recruite stdents. This new MSc explores developments in the changing landscape and environment and offers an exciting new eLearning based approach to graduate studies. The programme is a distance learning course and the latest digital learning technologies are used to deliver course materials online. Anyone, anywhere in the world with a first degree or equivalent experience can sign up for this MSc.
The programme will appeal to students all over the world who wish to study for a Master's degree where history meets politics and ecology, where heritage and history intersect, and where historical urban landscapes and the built environment are of interest.
The MSc programme:
- explores the history, archaeology and ecology of landscapes, using Scottish examples set in national and international contexts
- illuminates how urban and rural space and resources have changed over time
- develops independent study and research skills
The course is written by a team of senior academics in social and urban history, environmental history, archaeology, conservation, and politics who have combined with curators and librarians in the National Library of Scotland, Royal Commission of Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and other cultural organisations to produce video lectures, interactive learning modules, and virtual tours. It is a unique assembly of expertise and digital resources.
This learning environment is complemented with online e-resources - books, journal articles and a range of original sources through Edinburgh University Library's extensive list of digital subscriptions. There is a strong Scottish flavour to the examples and exercises yet the course draws on national and international contexts and scholarly literature from several disciplines.
For a taster session of the teaching materials and further details about the course go to www.shc.ed.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/landscape/ or download the flyer or poster.
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