The Future of Wild Europe

Location: University of Leeds, UK

Conveners: School of English, University of Leeds, UK

The conference is co-hosted by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN): Environmental Humanities for a Concerned Europe (ENHANCE) and the Wildland Research Institute.

The program can be found here.

What is the future of the wild in Europe? Wildness is a key theme across many European societies, an idea often used to separate nature from cultures. Places, people, processes and objects have all been described as wild, yet the meanings, values and locations of "the wild" in Europe have changed over time, and will continue to evolve. Some have seen the confinement of the wild into its proper place as a defining feature of European civilisation. Alternatively, moves to re-wild Europe argue that humans should loosen their control over nature in order to let the wild back in, an assertion that preserves a nature-culture dualism. This interdisciplinary conference will explore the meaning, place and value of ‘the wild’ within the Europe of today and the future.

Speakers include Liz DeLoughrey (UCLA, English), Dolly Jørgensen (Luleå, History), Britt Kramvig (Tromsø, Anthropology), Thierry Lefebvre (IUCN France, Evolutionary Biology) and Jamie Lorimer (Oxford, Geography).

Conference fee: £10. Some bursaries for assistance with travel will be available. This nominal fee also includes an optional field trip in the Yorkshire region on 11 September for interested participants.

The School of English invites the participation of postgraduate and early-career researchers from across disciplines, such as history, literature studies, geography, anthropology, environmental philosophy and conservation biology. They particularly encourage submissions from those working in the environmental humanities and on interdisciplinary research. Note while the conference will have traditional panel session presentations, we also welcome the participation of scholars who wish to present via alternative formats (e.g., poster sessions, film screenings, and photographic or audio presentations).

More information on the conference can be found here. Videos of the talks can be viewed here.

A conference report is available on the "Seeing the Woods" blog.