RCC Newsletter, Issue 13

Dear Friends of the RCC,

Since we celebrated our third birthday on 1 August, the RCC has passed a further milestone. The last six weeks have seen the arrival of the largest number of Carson Fellows at any one time—twelve new scholars with backgrounds in anthropology, history, and sociology have come from Mongolia, Canada, Italy, the USA, India, Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, and Nigeria have taken up their fellowships and joined the fellows already at the RCC.

1. Mark your calendars! The RCC will be hosting the seventh biennial European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) conference, “Circulating Natures: Water—Food—Energy,” in Munich from 21-24 August 2013. The deadline for panel and individual paper submissions is 15 October 2012. We hope to see many of you in Munich next summer!
   
   
2. August 1 also marked a changeover on the RCC Academic Advisory Board, as several members completed their three-year terms of office. The RCC would like to thank Ulrich Beck, Georgina Endfield, Bernd Herrmann, and Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud for the thoughtful guidance and service that has helped us move the RCC from a proposal to a fully-fledged and operational research institute. The RCC now welcomes four new members to its advisory board; Eveline Dürr, Libby Robin, Hou Shen, and Verena Winiwarter.
   
   
3. In further news from our advisory board, Jane Carruthers (Chair of the Advisory Board) has been elected to the prestigious office of Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa; Carruthers is also currently serving as Vice-President of the Royal Society of South Africa.
   
   
4. Fish, Forests, and Fields: The RCC is pleased to announce the publication of two new RCC Perspectives volumes. In “Salmon Cultures: Indigenous Peoples and the Aquaculture Industry,” Sami and First Nations salmon fishers speak about life and work with salmon since the arrival of large-scale fish farming. “Fields and Forests: Ethnographic Perspectives on Environmental Globalization” presents ethnographic insights into the impact of the globalization on landscapes across the world. As always, our RCC Perspectives volumes are free and available for download on our website. If you would like a limited number of print copies, please contact us at perspectives@carsoncenter.lmu.de.
   
   
5. Taking stock of our own work, the RCC has released its Annual Report 2011. Also available for download online, the Annual Report gives a comprehensive overview of all research, events, fellows, publications, and projects from last year.  If you would like a limited number of print copies, please contact us at perspectives@carsoncenter.lmu.de.
   
   
6. Can history provide solutions for the environmental problems of today or even the future? RCC Director Christof Mauch tackles this question in his essay for Orion Magazine’s Thirty-Year Plan, a forward-looking publication in which thirty prominent writers and thinkers, including Ralph Nader, Pete Seeger, and Terry Tempest, share their ideas for what humanity needs for a sustainable future.
   
   
7. Recent Events:
   
   Malibu was not only the location of a recent RCC-sponsored panel; it was also its subject. RCC Director Christof Mauch and Carson Fellow Bron Taylor gave papers on Malibu as an Eden and Apocalypse at “Nature & Popular Imagination,” the Fifth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. Carson Fellow Lisa Sideris also joined Taylor and Mauch in a roundtable discussion of the “Greening of Religion Hypothesis.”
   
   In line with one of our six research foci, the RCC collaborated with the Global Risk Forum GRF Davos to sponsor several events at the Fourth International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC) Davos 2012. Coordinated by Uwe Lübken (Climates of Migrations), the RCC put together two plenary sessions as well as a conference session.
   
   
8. Fellows’ Moves: The RCC is pleased to congratulate Maohong Bao, Edmund Russell, Alexa Weik von Mossner, and Donald Worster on new positions. 
   
   
9. A prestigious research fellowship, travels in Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Iceland, a nomination to the Darwin Expert Committee, new publications, and a new research project are among the updates from our fellows. Check out Fellows’ News for more from Anthony Carrigan, Ingo Heidbrink, Andrea Kiss, Patrick Kupper, Gary Martin, and Timo Myllyntaus.
   
   
10. Upcoming Events:
    
    25-28 Sept: Diverse Panels with RCC Staff and Fellows, German Historikertag, Mainz
    
    02 Oct: Lunchtime Colloquium Double Session with Samuel Temple and Melanie Arndt
    
    03-04 Oct: Energy Resources: Europe and Its Former Colonies (workshop)
    
    10-11 Oct: The Alps and the Carpathians: Balancing Use and Protection in the Development of Two European Mountain Regions (workshop)
    
    11 Oct: Food, Inc. (Green Visions screening)
    
    11 Oct: Keynote Talk with David Arnold (Imperialism, Narrative and the Environment workshop)
    
    11-13 Oct: Imperialism, Narrative and the Environment (workshop)
    
    17 Oct: Podium Discussion on the Anthropocene Exhibition
    
    18 Oct: Michelle Mart on ‘Learning to Love Pesticides, A Look at Popular American Attitudes’ (Lunchtime Colloquium)
    
    25 Oct: Sarah Cameron on ‘The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan’ (Lunchtime Colloquium)

As always, to stay up to date on the RCC, check out our website, our Facebook page, or follow us on Twitter.

Best wishes,

The Rachel Carson Center