RCC Newsletter, Issue 30
December 2017
21.12.2017
Dear Friends of the RCC,
As the year comes to a close, we are excited to announce several opportunities at the RCC. Our call for the 2018–19 cohort of fellows is currently open; please share this information with anyone who might be qualified. Furthermore, in mid-January 2018, we will open applications for two Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to participate in our newest Innovative Training Network, “Building Resourceful and Resilient Communities through Adaptive and Transformative Environmental Practice (RECOMS).”
- Recent Events: The workshop “Asia and the Pacific: Environment–Culture–Histories” brought scholars from China to Munich to discuss Asian environmental history with scholars from LMU Munich and the RCC’s fellowship program. “Communicating the Climate” engaged with questions surrounding climate science communication, from social science and humanities’ perspectives. At “Environmental Histories of Architecture,” scholars discussed questions of disciplinary adjacencies, instrumentality, and the broader disciplinary effects of the environmentalization of architectural history. Finally, the “Ecopolis Night” highlighted the student-developed “Ecopolis München” exhibition and included “eco-slams,” student project presentations, and an opening address by LMU President Bernd Huber.
- Publication News: Watch this space for the final two Perspectives issues of 2017, due to be published before the year ends. “The Good Muck: Toward an Excremental History of China” and “Can Nature Have Rights? Legal and Political Insights” will make for excellent reading during the holidays.
- New on the Blog: Seeing the Woods introduced a new series, “The Taproom,” on the environmental history of beer. Check out new additions by Gregg Mitman and Lisa Fitzgerald to the series, “Making Tracks.” Finally, the series “Uses of Environmental History” has two new contributions from Lise Sedrez and Sandra Swart.
- Environment & Society Portal Update: The newest virtual exhibition, “Ecopolis München: Environmental Histories of a City,” is now live. In addition, our newest Arcadia collection, “Disaster Histories,” is online; you can also find ten new Arcadia articles on topics such as “American Cockroaches,” “Naturalizing Trout,” and “Dilemmas in Urban Rat Control.” Finally, the Portal is now mobile responsive and received a complete makeover in 2017.
- News from the Hazardous Travels Project: With the arrival of Ayushi Dhawan (India’s Shipbreaking Business) and Jonas Stuck (Toxic Divide) in September 2017, our research group is now complete. We launched our website in the fall; check it out for project and personal profiles. The team has also just launched a series of blog posts called “Trash Talks. Everyday Encounters with Hazardous Waste” on the RCC’s Seeing the Woods. Maximilian Feichtner and Christian Lahnstein (formally Munich Re) jointly spoke at the Climate Fall Munich (Klimaherbst München) about Chevron's (legal) oil legacy in Ecuador. You can re-visit the event on our Twitter account or read more about it here.
- Update from the Doctoral Program Environment and Society: Program members met in early November to discuss their projects at the winter semester’s Doktorandentag. Fabian Zimmer won the Georg Agricola Society's Young Investigators Award for his Master’s thesis and Claudio de Majo was awarded a fellowship from the Andrea von Braun Foundation.
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New Grant: We are happy to report we have been awarded a new grant: a collaborative project, “Issues with Europe—A Network Analysis of the German-speaking Alpine Conservation Movement (1975-2005),” headed by Martin Lengwiler (Basel), RCC Alumnus Patrick Kupper (Innsbruck) and Helmuth Trischler (RCC).
- Alumni News: As part of the Research Roundup on Seeing the Woods, Vidya Sarveswaren wrote about Piplantri and her pilot shoot there, for which she received the 2017 Society of Fellows Public Outreach Grant. Cindy Ott was featured in Time Magazine on the history and importance of pumpkins in US culture.; David Biggs had an opinion piece featured in The New York Times. The following alumni have published new monographs or edited collections: Laurence Delina, Sophia Kalantzakos (2, in fact!), Ernst Langthaler, Tim LeCain, Michel Pimbert, Lisa Sideris, and Zhen Wang. Matthew Booker, Peter Cox, Yan Gao, Eagle Glassheim, Tim LeCain, Timo Myllntaus, Daisy Onyige, and James Rice all have new positions or new roles at their institutions. Finally, Kata Beilin, Bernhard Gissibl, Serenella Iovino, Grace Karskens, Cheryl Lousley, and Daisy Onyige have won fellowships or awards.
In addition, we are very pleased to highlight an array of alumni collaborations from the past year in three different features on the website (here, here, and here). Take a look to read about joint workshops, publications, exchange visits, and conferences. Finally, for those interested in more personal updates from former RCCers, check out the new section, “Alumni Updates,” on the website. - Staff News: Helmuth Trischler‘s newest edited collection, Visionen - Räume - Konflikte: Mobilität und Umwelt im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert,” has been published.
- Upcoming Events:
11 Jan: David Munns on “To Live among the Stars: Designing Artificial Environments” (Lunchtime Colloquium)
18 Jan: Roberta Biasillo on “Ecologies of Italian Rule in North and East Africa” (Lunchtime Colloquium)
25 Jan: Helin Burkay on “Politics of Conservation and Development: Shifting Narratives of Sustainability” (Lunchtime Colloquium)
1 Feb: Abosede Babatunde on “Oil: Mitigating Militancy in Nigeria's Niger Delta” (Lunchtime Colloquium)
1 Feb: Film Screening + Discussion: Biophilic Design (Green Visions Film Series)
8 Feb: Bernhard Rieger on “Materials for the Twenty-First Century—Can Carbon Come from CO2?” (Lunchtime Colloquium)
18–19 Feb: “Transformations in Environment and Society” (Workshop—Abu Dhabi)
21–23 Feb: “How New Are the Renewables? Historicizing Energy Transitions” (Workshop) - Calls for Papers:
The Environmental History of the Pacific World—Deadline 15 January 2018
Migrations, Crossings, Unintended Destinations: Ecological Transfers across the Indian Ocean 1850–1920—Deadline 28 February 2018
As always, to stay up-to-date on the RCC: check out our website, our Facebook page, and blog, or follow us on Twitter.
Best wishes,
The Rachel Carson Center