RCC Newsletter, Issue 31

Dear Friends of the RCC,

With 2018 well underway, we are excited to report on recent activities and to announce several new opportunities at the RCC. First, the call for entries for the 2019 Turku Book Prize is currently open. Entries must be single-authored monographs in the field of European environmental history published in 2017 or 2018. Submissions for the prize are due by 31 January 2019. Second, the Doctoral Program Environment and Society is currently inviting applications. Applications are due by 15 May 2018 via the online portal of the LMU Munich Graduate Center.

1. Recent Events: The workshop “Hazardous Time-Scapes: How to Make Sense of Toxic Landscapes from Multiple Timed, Spaced, and Embodied Perspectives?” brought approximately 25 environmental humanities scholars to Munich to discuss our understanding of toxic environments. RCC staff, fellows, and alumni met in Abu Dhabi for “Transformations in Environment and Society,” the inaugural collaborative workshop between the RCC and the newly founded Earth Humanities Research Initiative at New York University Abu Dhabi conference. “How New Are the Renewables? Historicizing Energy Transitions,” a conference held at the Deutsches Museum, saw scholars gather to discuss the social context of the adoption of alternative energy sources.

2. Environment & Society Portal Update: The Environment & Society Portal is proud to present a new Virtual Exhibition on "Radical Environmentalism's Print History: From Earth First! to Wild Earth." The Portal team is also happy to have welcomed back former intern Jonatan Palmblad as the new managing editor for Arcadia. Our ongoing spring edition now includes Katrin Kleemann's “‘Moby Dick’ in the Rhine,” Urmi Engineer Willoughby’s “The Ecology of Yellow Fever in Antebellum New Orleans,” and David Moon’s “A Shaggy-Bear Story.” Arcadia's call for papers for the summer edition can be found here.

3. Publication News: In case you missed it, we rounded up 2017 with the publication of two volumes: “The Good Muck,” by Don Worster, and “Can Nature Have Rights? Legal and Political Insights,” edited by Anna Leah Tabios Hillebrecht and María Valeria Berros. March also saw the publication of the RCC special issue of Global Environment 11.1, “Consuming the World: Eating and Drinking in Culture, History, and Environment,” edited by Michelle Mart and Dan Philippon.

4. New on the Blog: The RCC's Blog, Seeing the Woods, has a new look! Be sure to visit it to encounter stories from across the RCC network and beyond through interviews, snapshots, and unique series. “The Taproom” continues to bring out wonderful posts on beer history. And our “Bookshelf” series relaunched this year with a review of Stefan Dorondel's book Disrupted Lansdcapes and a Q&A with Carson alumna Jessica J. Lee. If you are interested in reviewing a book for us, contact perspectives@rcc.lmu.de.

5. Update from the Environmental Studies Certificate Program: Students of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program participated in the interdisciplinary experimental teaching seminar, “National Parks in Bavaria: Environment—History—Politics,” held by Christof Mauch. Ecopolis, last summer's student exhibition on Munich's environmental histories, was turned into a virtual exhibition and was also mentioned in the LMU's university magazine. The first meeting of the Alumni Association Rachel Carson Center e.V. was held In March. The association enables students graduated from the Doctoral Program in Environment and Society and Environmental Studies Certificate Program to stay connected with each other and the RCC.

6. Update from the Doctoral Program Environment and Society: Two RCC doctoral candidates excelled in the Edge Effects photo contest, “Working at the Edge.” Jonas Stuck, a member of the DFG Emmy-Noether Research Group “Hazardous Travels,” took first place with a stunning image captured on the Isle of Skye, while Katrin Kleeman received an honorable mention for her photograph of a river in the Icelandic highlands. Jonas also published a piece on “bothying” in the Scottish Highlands in Edge Effects’ digital magazine.

7. Alumni News: RCC Alumni Vipul Singh and Dan Lewis have published books developed from their projects as fellows at the RCC. Azeez Olaniyan published an article in the African Security Review. Claudia Leal was awarded a fellowship from the National Humanities Center to continue her research on Colombian national parks. Jenny Price was a co-recipient of the Public Outreach Project Award of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH). Kieko Matteson has been appointed series editor of the Berghahn Books series, “Environment in History: International Perspectives.” The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has awarded the 2018 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for History to former RCC board member and alumnus John R. McNeill. The RCC Society of Fellows granted alumni fellowships to Amanda Boetzkes, Matthew Booker, Robert Gioielli, Ruth Morgan, Chris Pastore, and Monica Vasile, as well as a Public Outreach Grant to Christopher Conte for a public history project focused on Mlalo, Tanzania.

8. Staff News: Together with a consortium of partners from Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Austria, the RCC (with Christof Mauch as principal investigator) has been awarded an EU-funded project under the Livable Alpine Space funding scheme. CHEERS (“Cultural Heritage, Risks, and Securing Activities”) is a trans-Alpine project that will research and promote new national and transnational governance and intervention schemes in the management and protection of cultural heritage sites and will also provide innovative approaches to and tools for securing cultural assets at risk from natural disasters. The RCC will serve as the German partner in this initiative and receive funding for one doctoral researcher, as well as for related events and publications.

9. Upcoming Events:

04 May: “Globalising the Climate: COP21 and the Climatisation of Global Debates” (Book Presentation)

07 May: “The Rights of Nature: A Global Movement” (DOK.fest 2018 Movie Screening)

11 May: “The Rights of Nature: A Global Movement” (DOK.fest 2018 Movie Screening)

17 May: Katherine Morrissey on “Visual Legacies along the US-Mexico Border” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

17 May: Simone Müller on "The Global Waste Economy" (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment & Society: Research at LMU Munich)

24-26 May: "The Environmental History of the Pacific World" (Conference - Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, China)

24 May: Merita Dollma on “Tourism Development in Albania’s Protected Areas” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

24 May: Karen Pittel on “Climate Policy —A Social Dilemma?” (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment & Society: Research at LMU Munich)

07 June: Birgit Müller on “Glyphosate and Perceptions of Care in Industrial Farming” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

07 June: Gordon Winter on “Making the Blue Economy” (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment & Society: Research at LMU Munich)

07 June: Film Screening + Discussion: Racing Extinction (Green Visions Film Series)

14 June: Harald Lesch on “Science, Society, Signs” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

14 June: Eveline Dürr on “Ecotourism and Indigeneity in Mexico” (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment & Society: Research at LMU Munich)

21 June: Sumana Roy on “’As Water Weeps’: By the Teesta River” and Anna Katharina Woebse on “Modern Swamps: A Visual History of European Wetlands” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

21 June: Julia Herzberg on “Frost, Ice, and Snow in Russian History” (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment and Society: Research at LMU Munich)

28 June: Sverker Sörlin on “Thinking Through Transition: Historical Knowledge in Swedish Climate Policy” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

28 June: Michelle Mart on “Food, Nostalgia, and the Search for Pleasure. Rethinking What to Eat” (Lecture Series: American History and Culture)

28 June: Markus Vogt on “Environmental Ethics in the Anthropocene” (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment and Society: Research at LMU Munich)

05 July: Tait Keller on “Energy Geopolitics during the First World War” and Qing Pei on “Climate Change and Economic Development across Eurasia” (Lunchtime Colloquium)

05 July: Katherine Morrissey on “Creating the US-Mexico Border” (Lecture Series: American History and Culture)

05 July: Helmuth Trischler on “The Anthropocene: A Challenge to the Environmental Humanities” (Lecture Series: Windows on Environment and Society: Research at LMU Munich)

As always, to stay up-to-date on the RCC: visit our website, our Facebook page, and blog, follow us on Twitter, and check out our new Instagram account!

Best wishes,
The Rachel Carson Center