Tuesday 24 March 2015

This Thursday: paper presentation in St Petersburg by David Moon

The American Steppe: Influences from Russia on the Great Plains

 

On 26th March, Anniversary Professor of the University of York (UK) David Moon will present his paper “The American Steppe: Influences from Russia on the Great Plains” at the regular research seminar “Boundaries of History” of the Center for Historical Research and the Department of History of the Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg.

Read the whole article

Friday 13 March 2015

CFP: Scientific Seminar on "Environmental History of the Siberian North : Promising Research Directions"

Dear Colleagues

On 15-16 October 2015, Surgut State Pedagogical University will be holding a scientific seminar on 

"Environmental History of the Siberian North : Promising Research Directions"


Environmental historians from the USA and Europe consider Russia to be a great country with unique natural conditions, particularly interesting as it is little known. This is particularly true of the Siberian North which was only recently, and rapidly, developed. At the start of this development the main need was to relate the amount of resources extracted to the needs of industrial development with environmental protection as necessary. These factors make this region interesting for historical-ecology researches both in theoretical and also practical fields.

The main goal of the seminar is to discuss the results of existing research on the environmental history of the Siberian North, both theoretical and methodological, and explore the possibilities for new historical research on the origins and evolution of contradictions between people and nature in this region. We aim to develop a professional dialogue discussing the main theoretical and methodological problems of environmental history.

The program will include members’ reports and roundtables, as well as a cultural program.

The working languages are Russian and English.

The Conference Committee proposes the following themes for roundtables:
  • Historical experience of nature management in the Siberian North: «experience of history» and «experience of historian»,
  • The history of regional environmental policy in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union: the «north variant».
  • Natural resources, natural management and natural protection in the North of Siberia in the historical past;
  • Models of interaction between society and nature in the North of Siberia in the 17th – 20th century.
To take part in the conference, please send a request (details of information to include below) and the text of your article (3 000 - 5 000 words) not later 31 August 2015 to the e-mail: surgut.envhist@gmail.com.  

The requirements for the article’s format are also given below.

The seminar proceedings will be published. 

The Conference Committee maintain the right to reject requests and articles proposed for publication.
Travel, accommodation and subsistence to be paid for by the participant.

Any questions, please contact the Conference Committee by e-mail: reiseleiter@mail.ru or tel. +7(982) 188 1736/ +7 (913) 143 6440 (Maksim Mostovenko).

Please provide the following information with your request:
  1. Name and Family name, academic rank, work position, place of work
  2. Contact tel. and e-mail
  3. Theme of article
  4. Curriculum Vitae including your scientific field and main research themes. (Please send this as a MS Word or pdf file in a separate attachment)
  5. Text of article
Please send your article in the following format:

Format – А4. Field 2 sm. Type – Times New Roman, size of type – 14, line interval 1,5, indention 1,25, annealing of text – on width.

A list of references should be given at the end of the article. The references in the text should be given in square brackets  [1, p 20].

Articles may be published in Russian or English

The text of the article must include an abstract (not more 250 words) and a list of key words (5-10 words).

The first page must have :

  • name and family name of the author on the first line,
  • place of work on the second line
  • theme of the article on the third line 
  • text of article on the fourth line
Example:


John Mill

Surgut State Pedagogical University

Theme of article

     Abstract. An abstract in English.

     Key words. Key words in English

     Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article. Text of article…

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Sounds from dangerous places book with audio CDs: Chernobyl

‘Sonic Journalism’ is the aural equivalent of photojournalism. It describes the practice where field recordings play a major role in the discussion and documentation of places, issues and events and where listening to sounds of all kinds strongly informs the approach to research and following narratives whilst on location.

On two trips to Chernobyl in May 2006 and July 2007, Peter Cusak made many location recordings in and around the ‘exclusion zone’ in Ukraine. These include sounds of wildlife, radiometer bleeps, eerie rooms in the ghost town of Pripyat, work that still goes on around the nuclear reactors, and songs and poems of the traditional people of the affected area. Their stories are in many respects the least known of the disaster.

See and hear more at http://sounds-from-dangerous-places.org/chernobyl.html

Tuesday 3 March 2015

"Waiting for the Sea": BBC article on the Aral Sea

It took just 40 years for the Aral Sea to dry up. Fishing ports suddenly found themselves in a desert.

But in one small part of the sea, water is returning...

Read the full article (published 25.2.15) on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31588720

Call For Papers: "Global Environmental Histories from Below"

Global Environmental Histories from Below
Call for Papers
Special Issue of
Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities

Robert Morrissey and Roderick Wilson, editors

We seek submissions for a special, peer-reviewed issue focusing on “Global Environmental Histories from Below” -- by which we mean historical work that tells the history of environmental, social, and cultural change from the bottom up.  Aiming for a truly global conversation, we hope to bring together scholars with a broad range of geographical and temporal concerns for a mix of essays that will be both methodological and topical.  Digging below the level of empire and nation-state, this special issue will draw on local case studies from around the world to imagine and develop a set of frameworks for telling global environmental histories from a grassroots perspective. 

Submissions should feature the viewpoint of the voiceless, underrepresented, or socially marginalized wherever possible. They might come at “the below” from a variety of angles, including but not limited to the following:

Indigenous environmental histories: work that addresses the intersection of native peoples and their historical relations with local, regional and interregional environments; 

 Environmental histories of agriculture and fishing: work that might range from agronomy to farming the sea to explore the long and complex history people have shared with plants, animals, and other historical actors at a variety of scales; 
 Vernacular knowledges: work that explores how tacit knowledge of the environment is learned and transmitted and how local bodies of knowledge have been changed or lost with the introduction of scientific management of natural environments.

Submissions should be no more than 7000 words, including notes.

Deadline for submissions is May 15, 2015.

For further information please contact Bob Morrissey at rmorriss@illinois.edu and Rod Wilson at riwilson@illinois.edu.