New Networking website - connect with others working in your field

David Moon and Victoria Beale at the University of York, UK, have created a networking website for people studying the environmental history of Russia and its neighbours. Our main focus is on the Post-Soviet space, the USSR, the Russian Empire and its predecessors. This is a place to discover and connect with others working in the field.

The network is for anyone who identifies themselves as an Environmental Historian, from any discipline, including academic staff/faculty, postgraduate/graduate students and independent scholars who have published in the field.

If this describes you, we invite you to add your profile to the growing number on the website. http://www.reh.spruz.com

Openings for Chair and a Professor (full or associate) in Central Asian History, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan

Deadline for applications: 7 September 2014

Full or Associate Professor in History  

Institution:	Nazarbayev University
Location:	Astana, Kazakhstan
Category:	Faculty - Liberal Arts - History
Posted:	07/25/2014
Application Due:	Open Until Filled
Type:	Full Time

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) at Nazarbayev University invites applications for a Full or Associate Professor in History in the Department of History, Philosophy and Religious Studies. S/he should be able to contribute to the teaching in the history of Central Asia and the Kazakh steppe and to the M.A. in Eurasian Studies. To complement the existing strengths of the Department, candidates with an expertise in the interaction between Central Asia and China or in the early modern history of Central Asia and the Turkic-speaking world are particularly encouraged to apply.

The position requires a Ph.D. in History or Oriental Studies and teaching and research experience commensurate with the sought rank. We are looking for a candidate with an exemplary and ongoing record of research, demonstrated excellence in graduate and undergraduate teaching, a commitment to active involvement in the life of the Department, and the capability of mentoring junior faculty in research and teaching. This is a three-year appointment with the possibility of renewal, starting in August 2015.

The Department currently has ten full-time Faculty members representing the breadth of the discipline, with an emphasis on Eurasian history and civilizations. Besides offering a major in History and minors both in History and in Philosophy/Religious Studies, the Department plays a key role in providing instruction in these disciplines to students across the School and beyond, as well as in contributing to the recently established M.A. in Eurasian Studies.

The Department is responsible for offering an innovative course in the history of Kazakhstan which is compulsory for all undergraduates.

The Department is housed within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences which
offers six majors and has approximately 600 students. Nazarbayev University is a modern, English-language institution based on best practices drawn from partner higher education institutions in the US, UK and Singapore. The strategic partner for SHSS and the Department is the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nazarbayev University is located in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.

The salary and benefit package are highly competitive. The benefit package includes the following:

• Housing based on family size and rank;
• A relocation allowance;
• Air tickets to home country, twice per year;
• No-cost medical insurance, with global coverage;
• An educational allowance for children.

Applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, three publications and the names and contact information for three referees.

Application Information

    

Contact:	Chair of Hiring Committee School of Humanities and Social Sciences Nazarbayev University
Email Address:	nu.shss@nu.edu.kz ...

Chair of the Department of History, Religious Studies and Philosophy

  

Institution:	Nazarbayev University
Location:	Astana, Kazakhstan
Category:	Faculty - Liberal Arts - History Faculty - Liberal Arts - Religious Studies & Theology Faculty - Liberal Arts - Philosophy
Posted:	07/25/2014
Application Due:	Open Until Filled
Type:	Full Time

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) at Nazarbayev University invites applications for the inaugural position of Chair of the Department of History, Religious Studies and Philosophy. The Department currently has ten full-time faculty members representing a variety of disciplines and sub-disciplines, with an emphasis on Eurasian history and civilization. Besides offering a major in History and minors in History and in Philosophy and Religious Studies, the Department plays a key role in providing instruction in History, Religious Studies and Philosophy to students across the School and beyond as well as in contributing to the recently established M.A. in Eurasian Studies. The Department is responsible for offering an innovative course in the history of Kazakhstan which is compulsory for all undergraduates.

The Department is housed within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences which offers six majors and has approximately 600 students. Nazarbayev University is a modern, English-language institution based on best practices drawn from partner higher education institutions in the US, UK and Singapore. The strategic partner for SHSS and the Department is the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nazarbayev University is located in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.

The position requires a Ph.D. in History or a related discipline with an exemplary and ongoing record of research, teaching and service. We are looking for a scholar with a proven track record of leadership as a department chair in a Western research university who has a vision for advancing our research and outreach in Central Asia and beyond, and who has a commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching. The applicant is expected to be at the Full or Associate Professor rank. The position is open in terms of area of specialization.

Nazarbayev University is committed to offering equal opportunities to all candidates, whatever their ethnicity, gender, and culture.

Requirements for the position include the ability to articulate a clear vision for the Department, a management style based on collaboration and consensus-building, the ability to work with faculty, staff and students of diverse backgrounds, and the capacity of mentoring junior faculty in research and teaching. In addition to contributing to the research and teaching mission of the Department, the Chair will also contribute to the further building of the School and play a significant role in shaping and implementing the School's strategic vision. This is a three-year appointment with the possibility of renewal.

The salary and benefit package are highly competitive. The benefit package includes the following:

• Housing based on family size and rank;
• A relocation allowance;
• Air tickets to home country, twice per year;
• Medical insurance, with global coverage;
• An educational allowance for children;

Applicants should submit a cover letter describing how their interests, previous experience and management style will contribute to the building of the Department and School, curriculum vitae and the names and contact information of three references.

Application Information

    

Contact:	Chair of Hiring Committee School of Humanities and Social Sciences Nazarbayev University
Email Address:	nu.shss@nu.edu.kz

Eunice Blavascunas on "Signals in the Forest: Postsocialist Scientific Legitimacy in Poland's Bialowieza Forest"

A Lunchtime Colloquium at the Rachel Carson Center, Munich

05.06.2014 12:00  – 14:00 

Location: Katholische Hochschulgemeinde (KHG), Leopoldstr. 11
Credibility contests about what nature is doing are rarely won by science alone because science is a cultural activity. In Europe’s last low-land old growth forest, the Bialowieza Forest in eastern Poland, which experts do people trust when those experts speak about the compositions of plants and animals that belong there? Which experts have they trusted in the post-socialist era? Intense debates about the ontology of the forest prefigure how the forest can be managed and in this story inflect on the use of radio telemetry and western-produced media. Cultural stories about science help scholars understand the shortcuts people take in interpreting the scientific positions that fit their views as well as political, historical circumstances.

Eunice Blavascunas (College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbour, USA) will present on "Signals in the Forest: Postsocialist Scientific Legitimacy in Poland's Bialowieza Forest."

The Lunchtime Colloquium is free and open to the public.
Snacks are served at 12:00; the lecture starts at 12:30.

For more information on the Lunchtime Colloquium series, please click here.

The Country and the City: Connecting People and Their Places in Environmental History

This International Conference in Beijing is currently underway (29.05.2014 – 01.06.2014)

 

It is Co-Sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, and the Center for Ecological History, Renmin University of China

 

Do rural people live in harmony with each other and with nature? Are urban people alienated from the land and exploitative in their ecological behavior? These questions point to cultural myths that have persisted across time and space, from ancient China to modern Africa. This conference seeks to scrutinize such cultural perceptions, in the spirit of famed British cultural critic Raymond Williams, and at the same time examine the material connections that have long bound rural and urban habitats together. We are especially interested in comparative studies that cross national boundaries, in papers that bring neglected parts of the world into view, and in perspectives that extend back in time before the twentieth century.

The program (PDF, 76 KB) can be viewed on the website of the Rachel Carson Center.

An American Environmental Historian visits Russia's National Parks

A thoughtful piece by Alan Roe - a Ph.D. student of Russian Environmental History at Georgetown University.  http://www.york.ac.uk/media/history/russianenvironment/National%20Parks%20essay%20Roe%20.pdf

Conference: “Environmental History in Russia: Stages of Development & Promising Research Directions”

Call for papers for Conference: “Environmental History in Russia: Stages ofDevelopment & Promising Research Directions”, November 13-15, 2014, Elabuga (Tatarstan, Russia). Deadline for proposals is 15 July 2014.

Contact: Andrei Vinogradov via e-mail andreivinogradov@gmail.com.

Fieldtrip to Kiev and Chernobyl postponed

Unfortunately, due to the current situation in Ukraine, we feel it is inappropriate for the Network to visit the country and hence we have postponed the Network's field trip to Kiev and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. We hope to be able to carry out this fieldtrip at a future date.

Network poster

A poster providing information about the Network is now available to download from the website at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/#tab-7 under the subheading "Network Publicity"

Solovetsky – from spirituality to coercion. And back...

A photo essay on the Network trip to the Solovetsky Islands last August, produced by participant Ion Von Sucala, is now available to view on the website. You can access this, and other essays and information about the trip, at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/events/#tab-2 

Health and Safety for Chernobyl trip

We have now prepared a Health and Safety Briefing for participants on the Network trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in July 2014. It is available from the Resources and Publicity page of the website.

This was written by Victoria Beale (Network Facilitator) in conjunction with Ian Haslam (Head of Radiation Protection at the University of Leeds following a meeting between Victoria, Ian, David Moon (Lead Investigator) and  Chris Teeling (Health and Fire Safety Officer at the University of York).

York Talk "Interactions in environmental history" summary

The summary handout from David Moon's 'York Talk' on "Interactions in Environmental History" (8/1/14) is now available from the Resources and Publicity page of the website.

Network showcased at 'York Talks'

On Wednesday 8th January the work of the Network will come under the spotlight in the University of York's inspiring public showcase - 'York Talks' http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/public-lectures/spring-2014/york-talk/.

Styled on the highly successful ‘TED’ Talks, 'York Talks' will highlight some of the University's most innovative and challenging research in an accessible, fast paced series of 15-minute talks.The aim is to share and explain our research to a wide audience of academics, researchers and the general public.

The event, the first of its kind at the University, illuminates the work of the University's Anniversary Professors, all of whom are leading edge academics appointed in 2013 to mark York’s 50th year. It will be opened by the new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Koen Lamberts in his first public event.

As one of the Anniversary Professors, David Moon will be presenting the work of the Leverhulme International Network in a talk entitled "Interactions in environmental history".

Essays on the Network Trip to the Solovetskii Islands

A number of Network members who took part in the trip to the Solovetskii Islands in August 2013 have contributed essays on the trip to the Network website. These can be viewed at:

http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/#tab-7

Prof David Moon presents Network to Leverhulme Trust workshop

On Friday 18 October, David Moon made a brief presentation on the network at a workshop on 'Leverhulme Trust research funding', addressed by Professor Gordon Marshall, the Director of the Leverhulme Trust. This took place in the Humanities Research Centre at York University.

http://www.york.ac.uk/hrc/events/2013-14/autumn-2013/proposition-leverhulme/

More photos from the Solovetskii Islands and St Petersburg

Ion Voicu Sucala is a Ph.D. student at the University of Glasgow researching “The selection of the organisational elite in Communist Romania”. He is a visiting researcher with the Network and has published many of his photos from the recent Network trip to St Petersburg and the Solovetskii Islands on his blog http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk

In particular his photos from the Solovetskii Islands can be found at
http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/solovki-islands-august-2013.html and
http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/solovki-archipelago-august-2013.html

and his photos from St Petersburg are at http://argo-traveller.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/st-petersburg-august-2013.html

More photos from the trip can be found on the Network website at http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/solovkigallery/

St Petersburg - photo by Ion Voicu Sucala

Nicholas Breyfogle's Blog on the Solovki trip

Network Partner Prof Nicholas Breyfogle from Ohio State University has created the blog Enironment–Water–History: Explorations in Ecological History which features a series of posts on the Network's recent trip to St Petersburg and the Solovetskii Islands. You can find it at https://u.osu.edu/breyfogle.1/

To the Blockade Stickleback
The shelling has fallen silent and the bombing too,
But, to this day, praise is sounded
To the blockade little fish
That helped the people to survive
                        — M. G. Aminova
                        –plaque erected for the 300-year anniversary of Kronstadt.

Photo by Nicholas Breyfogle

Field Trip to the Solovetskii Islands - August 2013

Monastery on Solovki - photo by Abi Sutton

In August, Network partners and invited specialists participated in a field trip to the Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea. These islands have a unique flora and fauna and have been inhabited since pre-history, hosting, among others, a fishing community, an Orthodox monastery and the first Soviet labour camp (gulag). The islands are designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and offer rich materials to investigate the relationship between state, society, culture, religion and nature, and the role of science and technology, in Russia’s Arctic region.


The programme for the trip, together with essays and photos by participants, can be found at:
www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/events/#tab-2 

Ohio State University

This article from Ohio State University celebrates the formation of the Network and the contribution of Professor Nicholas Breyfogle.

http://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news/breaking-fresh-ground-environmental-history-takes-a-new-direction

Network website launched

The website for the network is now live at: http://www.york.ac.uk/history/research/majorprojects/russiasenvironmentalhistory/ 

You are welcome to leave comments on the website here.

International Network Established

We are delighted to announce that The Leverhulme Trust has awarded an International Network Grant to the University of York for a project led by Professor David Moon entitled :

Exploring Russia’s Environmental History and Natural Resources

The network will comprise specialists from York and Glasgow universities in the UK, Georgetown and Ohio State universities in the USA, and the European University and Higher School of Economics in St Petersburg, Russia.

The network’s activities will revolve around a series of annual workshops/field trips to specific locations: the Solovetskii Islands in the White Sea; the Chernobyl’ exclusion zone in Ukraine; and Lake Baikal in Siberia. The project will combine field work in these locations with conventional historical research in order to enhance our understanding of the history of Russian scientific research, exploitation of natural resources, environmental disasters, and nature conservation.

By adding field work to conventional historical research we will enhance our understanding of the history of Russian scientific research, exploitation of natural resources, environmental disasters, and nature conservation.

The network will run for three years beginning July 2013.

Members of the network team after a preliminary meeting and workshop on the historic icebreaker Krasin (which was built on the river Tyne in 1916) in St Petersburg in March 2013.