European Society for Environmental History: Call for Papers for 2017 Conference

The next biennial conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) will be held in Zagreb, Croatia, on 28 June to 2 July 2017.

The conference announcement and call for papers (deadline 1 October 2016) has just been posted on the ESEH website.

http://eseh.org/event/next-conference/

Our Russian partners win prestigious grant from the Russian Science Foundation!

A team of researchers led by Professor Julia Lajus of the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg (HSE Spb), has been awarded a large grant for their project entitled:

Natural Resources in the History of Russia: Economic Institutes, Communities of Experts, and Infrastructures 

The full team is: Julia Lajus, Alexandra Bekasova, Marina Loskutova, Margarita Dadykina, Elena Korchmina, Elena Kochetkova and PhD students Ekaterina Kalemeneva and Vassily Borovoy (HSE Spb); Andrei Volodin (Moscow State University); Alexei Kraikovski  (European University at St Petersburg); Anastasia Fedotova (Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg). 

The project will make a significant contribution to the growing international scholarship in environmental history from a European as well as a global perspective. The environmental history of Russia will be analysed within an interdisciplinary framework incorporating a range of fields from across the humanities and social sciences. The project involves analysis of economic institutions, the activities of the expert community, and the development of infrastructures. The project comprises individual case studies of s , formed by major chronological periods , and the focus will be on lesser known historically significant natural resources (forests , water, fisheries , minerals ) over the period from the seventeenth century to the end of the Cold War in the late twentieth century.

The new knowledge obtained as a result of joint work of researchers specializing in the field of economic, environmental and technological history, will significantly improve the understanding of the interaction of people and nature in the past and will be useful in the development of informed decisions in the field of environmental management in the present.

The project is a very good example of what can be termed the ‘usable past’ i.e. knowledge and understanding of the past which has a practical relevance for addressing contemporary problems.

For the announcement on the website of the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg (in Russian), please see: https://spb.hse.ru/news/179560031.html

For more details (in English) please see: http://russianenvironmentalhistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page_17.html

New book "The Nature of Soviet Power - An Arctic Environmental History"

The Nature of Soviet Power

An Arctic Environmental History

Part of Studies in Environment and History

Author: Andy Bruno, Northern Illinois University

Date Published: April 2016

During the twentieth century, the Soviet Union turned the Kola Peninsula in the northwest corner of the country into one of the most populated, industrialized, militarized, and polluted parts of the Arctic. This transformation suggests, above all, that environmental relations fundamentally shaped the Soviet experience. Interactions with the natural world both enabled industrial livelihoods and curtailed socialist promises. Nature itself was a participant in the communist project. Taking a long-term comparative perspective, The Nature of Soviet Power sees Soviet environmental history as part of the global pursuit for unending economic growth among modern states. This in-depth exploration of railroad construction, the mining and processing of phosphorus-rich apatite, reindeer herding, nickel and copper smelting, and energy production in the region examines Soviet cultural perceptions of nature, plans for development, lived experiences, and modifications to the physical world. While Soviet power remade nature, nature also remade Soviet power.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/environmental-history/nature-soviet-power-arctic-environmental-history?format=HB  

Radio New Zealand interview

Professor David Moon discusses research on Russian environmental history 

Professor David Moon has been interviewed on the 'Nights' programme on Radio New Zealand. He was talking about the on-the-ground research on Russian environmental history being conducted as part of the Leverhulme International Network Exploring Russia's Environmental History and Natural Resources.

The interview was broadcast live on 13 April, and you can listen again here

Oxford Symposium - Population, Migration, and the Environment

Invitation to the Oxford Symposium on

Population, Migration, and the Environment 

1-2 August 2016

You are invited to participate in the Oxford Symposium on Population, Migration, and the Environment.

The symposium will be held 1 and 2 August 2016 at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford, UK.

You are invited to present a paper that encourages the exchange of interdisciplinary ideas about the main themes of the conference: world population increase, human migration, and environmental sustainability.  Alternatively, you may wish to attend as an observer or panel member.

The Symposium seeks to cover a broad agenda that includes disciplines such as economics, education, environmental studies, agriculture, law, political science, religion, and social studies. Topics for presentation may reach beyond these areas, and our website contains an extensive list of suggested topics.

Papers presented at the meeting will be subsequently peer-reviewed by external readers for possible inclusion in Symposium Books or sponsored academic journals.

Please Email Lydia at contact@oxford-population-and-environment-symposium.com if you have questions.

David Moon to speak on Radio New Zealand

David Moon is to be interviewed on the 'Nights' programme on Radio New Zealand about the Network's on-the-ground research on Russian environmental history

The interview will be broadcast live on Wednesday 13th April, at 7.10pm New Zealand time (8.10am UK time)

The programme will then be available online at rnz.co.nz/nights.

50% discount on new book "Cycling and Recycling"

New from Berghahn Books:

CYCLING AND RECYCLING

 Histories of Sustainable Practices

Edited by Ruth Oldenziel and Helmuth Trischler

256 pages, 18 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-78238-970-5 $95.00/£60.00

“This book’s conceptual framework is truly innovative and makes a much-needed intervention in the vast literature on sustainability. Writing against the ‘techno-fix mentality’ that dominates so many contemporary environmental discourses, the editors persuasively argue for the need to resurrect ‘older technologies for a new purpose.’” · Edward D. Melillo, Amherst College

In fascinating case studies ranging from the Early Modern secondhand trade to utopian visions of human-powered vehicles, the contributions gathered here explore the historical fortunes of two such technologies—bicycling and waste recycling—tracing their development over time and providing valuable context for the policy successes and failures of today."

To get your 50% discount use the code OLD705 when you buy the book from the website: http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=OldenzielCycling