Call for Papers: “The Past and Future of the Environmental Humanities”

Below, please find two separate calls dealing with “The Past and Future of the Environmental Humanities.”

Call for Multidisciplinary Panels in the Environmental Humanities for the Conference

Beyond Dualism—Thinking Creatively Across Worlds

Venue: Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, Schlossstr. 2+4, 82327 Tutzing, Germany
Date of the conference: 8–10 July 2026
Submission deadline: 1 October 2025

Scholars in the environmental humanities have for some time noted the need for new approaches in understanding a world that is deeply affected by exploitation of resources, diversity loss, and environmental injustice. They recognize that dualistic concepts, such as nature–culture, humans–more-than-humans, that have been deeply embedded in Western intellectual thinking have produced hegemonic knowledge and created problems and conflicts small and large. Moreover, they have called for breaking down boundaries between conventional disciplines to imagine new, more just and more convivial perspectives for life on the planet.

This conference organized by the Rachel Carson Center seeks to understand and to creatively challenge the world of binaries and boundaries through the discussion of work that is inter- and/or transdisciplinary and genuinely collaborative. It explicitly calls for full panels that bring together humanities scholars with scholars and experts from other but related disciplines (e.g., natural sciences, social sciences) or fields of practice (e.g., education, science communication, planning).

Papers should present empirical case studies that open new ways of understanding and that help to overcome one of the following dualities:

• Humans–More-Than-Humans
• Scarcity–Abundance
• Ideas–Matter
• Environments–Technologies

Preference will be given to panels that bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and offer critical perspectives and ideas for reflection, practice, and action.

Successful panelists will be invited to Tutzing Castle/ Ev. Akademie Tutzing (south of Munich) from 8–10 July 2026. Travel, food, and board will be paid for by the Rachel Carson Center and its project “Strengthening the Environmental Humanities,” which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation through its “Hochschule der Zukunft / University of the Future” funding line.

To apply, please submit a 400-word description of the panel and a list of three to four panelists (including two-page CVs for each) to conferences@rcc.lmu.de by 1 October 2025. Please see the attached call for papers below.

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Call for Tandem Presentations for the Young Scholars Forum

Repressed Pasts, Crossed Borders, Just Futures: Environmental, Social, and Political Perspectives

Venue: Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, Schlossstr. 2+4, 82327 Tutzing, Germany
Date of the forum: 8–10 July 2026
Submission deadline: 1 October 2025

This forum invites scholars who have recently earned their doctoral degree (up to 4 years ago) to form tandem presentations that challenge the borders dividing worlds. How can we understand and counter past and present discourses and movements seeking to reify borders fueling oppression and hate (e.g., between regions and peoples, human and more-than-human actors) in an effort to build more just futures?

We are hoping for a diverse mix of young scholars from different parts of the world who will present their work and ideas in short tandem presentations to an international audience. Each tandem should bring together a scholar from the humanities with a person who works in the social sciences, natural sciences, or in an environmental practice (e.g., in environmental education, environmental politics, museums or NGOs with an environmental focus).

The Young Scholars Forum will be part of an event titled “Environmental Pasts and Futures.” Successful tandems will be invited to Tutzing Castle/ Ev. Akademie Tutzing (south of Munich) from 8–10 July 2026. Travel, food and board will be paid for by the Rachel Carson Center and its project “Strengthening the Environmental Humanities,” which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation through its “Hochschule der Zukunft / University of the Future” funding line.

To apply, please submit a 400-word description of the tandem presentation including two-page CVs for each tandem partner to conferences@rcc.lmu.de by 1 October 2025. Please see the attached call for papers below.