Upcoming environmental history seminars in the ANU School of History series
Wednesdays 4.15-5.30pm:
7 March
Brett Bennett, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, UWS
The Decline of Ecological Liberalism and the Rise of Invasive Species in the Southwest Cape, 1890-1975
21 March
Tom Griffiths, School of History, ANU
Reflections on the centenary of the 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
Seminars are held in McDonald Room, Menzies Library, Fellows Road, ANU.
A couple of important environmental history papers in Inside Story, the online journal of ‘current affairs and culture from Australia and beyond’:
Tom Griffiths reflects on the tensions between science and sovereignty in Thus Began the Australian Occupation of Antarctica.
Tom’s Antarctic blog is also online with lots of great pictures.
In ‘Preserved for the People for All Time’, Cameron Muir asks if ‘balance’ is the best principle for inland rivers and recounts stories from the Macquarie Marshes in 1944 to the present Murray-Darling Basin.
Alessandro Antonello has reviewed the National Archives of Australia travelling exhibition ‘Traversing Antarctica’ in the latest issue of reCollections.
In this issue, Paul Star challenges historians to think about the role of private settlers in environmental change, putting forward the concept of ‘biota barons’ to describe those settlers whose actions resulted in significant ecological changes in nineteenth-century New Zealand. Joanna Bishop outlines a fascinating new topic – the role of medicinal plants in New Zealand – and asks readers for their help in tracking down new sources. Charles Dawson – presently in South America with his family – overviews an important new book on Māori attitudes to the natural world, that is also, as he puts it, ‘a handbook for aspiring kaitiaki’. Finally, Julian Kuzma reviews a delightful new book by Alex Calder which re-examines the relationship between Pākehā literature and the environment.
View it online or download a PDF.
This is the last edition of Environment and Nature in New Zealand under the editorship of James Beattie.
Centre for Environmental History, Australian National University, Canberra
28 May-1 June, 2012
Are you writing a PhD in some aspect of environmental history?
The Centre for Environmental History at the Australian National University will be running a workshop for PhD students from around the country who are researching aspects of environmental history in Australia, New Zealand or elsewhere. This is the sixth biennial workshop in environmental history run at ANU since 2002.
The aim of the workshop is to bring together doctoral students with common interests to learn from one another about how to address significant, exciting themes in this emerging field of scholarship. Students will be expected to participate by speaking and writing about their own research, and by doing some preparatory reading that will be provided in advance.
Sessions will be held on each of the five days (Monday 28 May to Friday 1 June). These will feature seminars on major themes in environmental history as well as student presentations on their doctoral research. Afternoons will mostly be reserved for preparatory reading, fieldwork, optional museum and archival visits, and informal meetings.
Course organisers will be Professor Tom Griffiths (Centre for Environmental History, ANU), Professor Libby Robin (Fenner School of Environment and Society ANU/Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia), Dr Nicholas Brown (School of History, Research School of Social Sciences ANU/Centre for Historical Research National Museum of Australia), Dr Gregory Barton (Centre for Environmental History, ANU), and Professor Heather Goodall (Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, University of Technology, Sydney).
Our international guest of honour will be Professor Sverker Sörlin (Professor of Environmental History at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden).
How to apply
The workshop is designed primarily for doctoral students currently enrolled at universities in Australia and New Zealand who are undertaking studies in environmental history (in all its forms). The number of participants will be strictly limited (to facilitate discussion). There is no registration fee.
Please apply by providing the following:
Send your application to Professor Libby Robin, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, or via email Libby.Robin@anu.edu.au by Monday, 27 February 2012.
Financial support will be available to participants from outside Canberra. For those coming from interstate capital cities, this will include a reimbursement for a return discount economy airfare (or petrol expenses) plus a contribution of $150 to your accommodation expenses. An equivalent level of support will be offered to international participants.
We look forward to hearing from you!
This PhD Workshop is sponsored by the Centre for Environmental History, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU, the Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU, and the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia.
SEEKING INFORMATION: Are you interested in the future of forestry or wood collections (Xylaria) in Australia? John Dargavel and Gordon Dadswell have an Xylaria article (PDF).
If you can help them with information or comments contact John.Dargavel@anu.edu.au.
XV International Conference of Historical Geographers taking place in Prague, Czech Republic on August 6 – 10, 2012. On-line registration is now open! Click here to register at early bird rates: http://www.ichg2012.cz
Submit your abstract today!
Deadline: December 31, 2012
We look forward to meeting you in Prague.
Conference Secretariat
GUARANT International spol. s r.o.
Opletalova 22
110 00 Prague 1
Czechia (Czech Republic)
