The RCC, together with Project House Europe (LMU Munich), invites applications for a joint fellowship to commence in Spring 2021. Applicants’ research should encompass the central themes of the RCC and the PHE: environment and society interrelations and 20th- and 21st-Century European History. For more Information, see the full call here. The application deadline is 31 August 2020.

Check out our newest blog series covering responses to the Covid-19 pandemic on the Seeing the Woods blog. The pandemic has changed all of our lives right around the world. Within an environmental context, this series explores the many different dimensions of the pandemic from its nonhuman origins to its wide-reaching social implications and impact on our hopes and dreams for a sustainable future. Contributions welcome!

Pollution has spurred the birth of environmental movements and the formation of the environmental history discipline. The time has come to view environmental pollution from a new angle. How have different perspectives shaped policies and how is the history of environmental pollution written in different political and cultural contexts? These and other questions will form the basis of an upcoming workshop at the RCC. The deadline for propsals is 1 June 2020 - read the full call here!

The Environment & Society Portal team is pleased to announce this new open-access virtual exhibition!

In his accessible and compelling essay, Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, are at the core of a majority of epidemics. In the face of the current coronavirus crisis, he argues that an exclusive focus on human life and economy will keep neither the planet nor ourselves healthy. We must decide “whether we humans can or want to restore and protect the health, not just of ourselves, but also of the planet.”

New on The Environment and Society Portal: the Pandemics in Context page offers a growing collection of annotated links to open-access media (analyses, primary sources, and digital resources) that help put pandemics in context. The pieces focus on environmental history/humanities aspects of, and approaches to understanding, pandemics.

New blog series on Seeing the Woods! Only a couple of months ago, the bushfire crisis in Australia captured the world's attention. RCC Fellows Anna Pilz and Kate Wright introduce this new series of personal and scholarly reflections grappling with the scope, consequences, and global reach of this environmental tragedy. Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming contributions!