NiCHE About | NiCHE - Network in Canadian History & Environment

Submitted by AdamCrymble on June 20, 2011 - 07:47

Understanding today's environment demands a clear understanding of its past. Unless environmental matters are studied in their historical context, there can be no measurement of relative change. NiCHE is a confederation of researchers and educators who work at the intersection of nature and history, seeking to provide that context. NiCHE acts to help make that work more available to fellow researchers, policy makers and the Canadian public.

In 2007, NiCHE was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Strategic Knowledge Clusters grant, giving it stable funding through 2014.

Getting Involved

NiCHE is first and foremost a community of people who share an interest in nature and the past. A majority of our more than 400 registered members are Canadian, but we have many members from around the world. Our directory contains people from many walks of life, ranging from academic researchers to government employees to environmental activists to the general public. Membership is free. If you are interested in joining, please visit our Registration page.

If you just enjoy following the network’s activities, that’s fine. But if you are interested in doing more, there’s plenty of opportunity to do so. If one of the Core Projects or Regional Groups interest you, team leaders are always happy to hear ideas, feedback, or questions. You can find contact information for team leaders on the individual project pages, or you can send us a note through our contact form and we will put you in touch with the right person.

NiCHE also welcomes projects initiated by individual members. What we look for in a proposal is an innovative idea that can advance or showcase Canadian environmental history / historical geography. Don't let a lack of technical background scare you away from approaching with an idea. Share your vision and we may have the tools to help you put it together. For more information on contributing, visit our Submission Guidelines page.

Our website is a popular forum for activity and information about nature and the past in Canada. If you want to get a message out about an upcoming event, call for papers, or news item, we welcome submissions. And if you have an opinion about an issue related to nature and the past, our group blogs also welcome submissions. Details on how to contribute news can be found in our Help section, and if you would like to contribute to one of our blogs, drop us a line.

Our Team

Running the network is a team effort. NiCHE is administered by an executive of eight scholars from across Canada, listed in the right column.

Two elected representatives, one from the New Scholars group and one from our regional networks, and an advisory board of international scholars and government researchers support the executive.

New Scholars Representative:
Michael Commito
McMaster University

Regional Networks Representative
Daniel Rueck
McGill University
daniel.rueck@mail.mcgill.ca

Advisory Board member
Stephen Bocking
Trent University

Advisory Board member
Michele Daganais
Université de Montréal

Advisory Board member:
Tina Loo
University of British Columbia

Advisory Board member
Joy Parr
University of Western Ontario

Advisory Board member
Donald Worster
University of Kansas

The day-to-day operations of the network are handled largely by two people:

Webmaster (2008-Present)
Adam Crymble
NiCHE
acrymbl@uwo.ca

Josh MacFadyen Project Manager (2012-Present)
Joshua MacFadyen
NiCHE
joshmacfadyen@gmail.com

Former Team Members

NiCHE has also benefited from the past efforts of team members who have moved on to other opportunities. We are grateful to the following former team members:

Project Manager (2010-2012)
Jim Clifford
cljim22@gmail.com