Mission

The Rachel Carson Center (RCC) is an international, interdisciplinary center for research and education in environmental studies located in Munich, Germany. It was founded in 2009 as a joint initiative of the LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität) and the Deutsches Museum, with the generous support of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The center is named after the American biologist, nature writer, and environmentalist Rachel Carson, whose accessible writing raised awareness worldwide about threats to the environment and human health.

 

The Rachel Carson Center aims to advance research and discussion concerning the interaction between human agents and nature, and to strengthen the role of the humanities in current political and scientific debates about the environment. By bringing together scholars who work in various disciplines and national contexts, and communicating the results of their research, the RCC aims to internationalize environmental studies and to raise its profile as a globally significant and growing field. The center's working language is English.

 

Learn more about the RCC. Watch our Image Film:

 

Annual Report 2009-10 (pdf, 1.164 KB)

Rachel Carson - A Short Biography

Research Areas

Programs and Activities

 

Research Areas

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The main goal of the Rachel Carson Center is to produce research on the complex relationship between nature and culture, acknowledging the nature-culture dichotomy and seeking to destabilize this construction. RCC research centers around six thematic clusters:

• Natural Disasters and Cultures of Risk
• Environmental Knowledge and Knowledge Societies
• Transformation of Landscapes
• Resource Use and Conservation
• Ecological Imperialism
• Environmental Ethics, Politics, and Movements

These six clusters form the backbone of research at the Rachel Carson Center. In order to maintain diversity within the Center, as well as to achieve the largest possible pool of applicants for fellowships, the annual call for papers features a rotating group of three thematic clusters each year.

 

Programs and Activities

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The Rachel Carson Center offers a range of programs and activities, including

• a fellowship program
• international conferences and workshops
• a seminar and lecture series
• a large online electronic documentation with primary sources (texts, visuals, statistics, etc.)
• a joint book series with the European Society for Environmental History
• a preprint series, available for download from the center’s website
• multiple exhibitions at the Deutsches Museum and other venues