Environment, Culture, and Place in a Rapidly Changing North
We invite paper and panel proposals for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment’s Off-Year Symposium, “Environment, Culture, and Place in a Rapidly Changing North,” to be held June 14-17 at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. Proposals for creative or scholarly work related to the field of literature and environment broadly, or to the symposium theme specifically, should include a 250-word abstract, paper title, your name, and affiliation. Proposals for pre-organized panels are also welcome. Submit proposals to Sarah Jaquette Ray (sjray@uas.alaska.edu) and Kevin Maier (kevin.maier@uas.alaska.edu) by November 5, 2011.
Theme
The North American “North” of Alaska and Canada is an excellent geographical imaginary through which to understand the human-nature concerns of our time. Ecosystems trespass national boundaries, for instance, and Northern communities experience the symptoms of climate change disproportionately relative to their contribution to its acceleration. A symposium focusing on “the North” suggests a transnational perspective of this paradox, as well as a range of concerns, from peak oil and climate change to traditional ecological knowledges and tourism. While the North is often seen as an isolated place with a unique character, safe from the economic and environmental woes of “down south,” this imaginary belies the North’s place within transnational phenomena, such as colonialism, global climate change, and globalization.
The symposium’s keynote speaker will be Julie Cruikshank, Professor Emerita of Anthropology at University of British Columbia, and author of Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters and Social Imagination. Plenary speakers are Ellen Frankenstein, who will screen her documentary film, Eating Alaska, Ernestine Hayes, author of Blonde Indian, who will do a reading from her current work, and Nancy Lord, who just published Early Warming: Crisis and Response to the Climate-Charged North.
Topics
We welcome proposals for papers, interdisciplinary research, or creative work on issues related to literature and the environment, and also work that explores the North American North, addressing (but not limited to) the following themes: Global indigenous environmental movements; Subsistence/food security/food justice/food cultures; Traditional/Local Ecological Knowledges; Climate Change (perception, bodies, knowledges, glocalism, glaciers, sea-levels, migration, justice); Transnational North; The North’s colonial, military, or historical contexts; Animals/Animality/Wildlife; Boundaries/Borders in the North; Migrations, human and nonhuman; ANWR, peak oil, and the Arctic as global space; Media representations of the North.
Travel Awards
Graduate Student and International Travel Awards (of $500) are available, as traveling to Juneau is expensive. To apply, please indicate your interest in being considered for one of these awards in your proposal.
www.uas.alaska.edu/asle
Dr. Sarah Jaquette Ray
Assistant Professor of English
Program Coordinator, Geography and Environmental Studies
University of Alaska Southeast
Environmental Protection in the Global Twentieth Century
Call for Papers for International Conference: Environmental Protection in the Global Twentieth Century: International Organizations, Networks and Diffusion of Ideas and Policies
Research College (Kollegforschergruppe, KFG) “The Transformative Power of Europe”,
Free University of Berlin
Issues of pollution, excessive use of natural resources, nature protection and climate change transcend national boundaries. They tend to be of a regional or even global scope. In historical perspective, the European Union was relatively slow to take up environmental protection (beyond health and safety related issues) in the 1970s, followed by the formal introduction of this policy field into the EC treaty with the Single European Act only in 1986-7. In fact, other International Organizations (IOs) had addressed environmental issues much earlier starting with the League of Nations in inter-war Europe. After World War II the United Nations and its Economic Commission for Europe, the Council of Europe and the Organization for European Economic Co-operation and Development, the present-day OECD, addressed environmental issues such as water and air pollution by pooling scientific expertise, collecting comparative data, propagating and funding international scientific programmes and inducing greater media attention to the cross-border dimension of environmental protection. These IOs became norm entrepreneurs in environmental protection and crucial sites for the diffusion of ideas and policies to other IOs, to states and governments and probably, across world regions and regional integration organizations.
In a long-term perspective covering what might be called the global twentieth century, the UN Conference Man and the Environment in 1972 appears to be a turning point. From then onwards, environmental protection increasingly became the focus of policy-making at the transnational and international level, in the context of IOs, and was no longer confined to bilateral treaties, for example concerning river pollution. This is also when the European Communities developed their first Environmental Action Programmes and began to become involved in issues such as bird and habitat protection. The conference will take the event of 1972 as a point of departure for analyzing the origins of the role of IOs in environmental protection prior to this event and for exploring how it evolved until the early 1990s, with a perspective to the present-day.
Academically, the conference has two main objectives. The first objective is to explore the structural environment for IO activities and agenda-setting in environmental protection, especially their linkages with scientific institutions and experts and any network-type relationships with societal NGO actors as well as member states and governments, which were pioneering new environmental policies nationally. The second aim is to study how the IOs helped to diffuse, or transfer, ideas and policy concepts – by uploading them from societal or state actors at national or regional level or by downloading and re-contextualizing ideas and policy concepts developed within and among IOs to national and regional policy-makers or even, businesses. We assume, and hope to explore in greater detail, that despite the absence in most cases of formal decision-making powers, IOs have been able to play a key role in the diffusion of ideas and policy concepts drawing upon crucial competences such as information gathering and diffusion and translating ideas and concepts across institutional and cultural divides, for example.
Strategically, the proposed conference has three main objectives. The first objective is to de-center the EU as a transformative power by embedding the analysis of its role in environmental protection within a broader study of the transnationalization of this policy field which includes other IOs (including those operating globally and in other world regions) and the EU’s relations with them. The second aim is to connect historical research, which so far has mainly focused on the history of the environment rather than of environmental protection, with social science research on regional and global environmental policy and politics. The third objective is to broaden the study of IOs and environmental protection in Europe to a comparative regional and global analysis which begins to address the question to what extent “Europe” and its regional integration institutions have been the recipients of ideas and policy concepts downloaded from global organizations like the UN or other non-European national or regional actors like the US, and to what extent more recently, “Europe” and the EU have also increasingly acted as norm entrepreneurs and exporters in this policy field.
Historical research on Europe and other world regions in the twentieth-century is currently beginning to develop an interest in the multiple roles of IOs including those with limited policy-making powers, but manifold other functions. At a global level this type of research appears to be even less developed. The initial purpose of the conference is, therefore, to identify and mobilize researchers, research projects and avenues of further enquiry regarding IOs and environmental protection, and bringing these researchers in dialogue with social scientists who work in the field.
We invite paper proposals on any topic or period, which address the role of IOs, experts and networks in the diffusion of ideas and policies of environmental protection. All papers must be based in original research drawing upon archival sources, interviews, media reporting etc. Paper proposals must include the name of the paper-giver, a short CV and a paper abstract of no more than 250 words. The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 15 January 2012. Paper proposals have to be sent simultaneously to Wolfram.Kaiser@port.ac.uk and jhmeyer@gmx.de.
Successful applicants will be informed on or shortly after 31 January 2012. The KFG “The Transformative Power of Europe” will cover their overnight accommodation in Berlin and reasonable travel costs.
Climate Change and Migration: Knowledge, Law and Policy, and Theory
This Action aims to enhance and improve understanding of one of the most disputed and politically-charged consequences of climate change: migration. To do so, it brings together a diverse ensemble of established and early-stage social scientists to build upon and extend existing social science research into climate change and migration across three interrelated fields of investigation: knowledge; law and policy; and theory. The Action has five objectives: to enhance and improve understanding of climate change and migration; to furnish state and non-state actors with state-of-the-art empirical, theoretical, legal and policy research on climate change and migration; to inform national and international policy dialogue, such as the IPCC and other policy initiatives; to expand research capacity in the area of climate change and migration; and to establish a network of Europe-based social science researchers working on climate change and migration. The beneficiaries of the Action include states, in particular those of the European Union, as well as environmental, development and humanitarian NGOs, and IGOs, such as UNFCCC, IPCC, UNEP, UNDP, IOM and ILO. Moreover, by facilitating the development of world-leading social science perspectives on climate change and migration, the Action aims to enhance development and build adaptive capacity amongst those most vulnerable climate change.
For more information, visit the COST website.
Water, Fish and Fowl: The Translocal Ecologies Mobile ‘Workship’
12:30 to 3:30, lunch provided.
Join us as we cruise Lake Ontario and the entrance to the 1000 Islands aboard the Island Star (or Island Queen).
Kingston Harbour, at the foot of Brock St., Kingston, Ontario.
Transnational Ecologies has been working to deepen communication concerning migrations of both non-human species and environmental knowledge. On the 30th of October, we are launching a mobile ‘workship’ that brings together a small group of historical geographers, postcolonial and environmental historians, historians of science and local experts to discuss common interests in mobility, nature & knowledge. To some extent the ‘workship’ builds on the strong interest in transnational, translocal and international issues exhibited at the NiCHE EH+ conference held at McMaster last spring and we hope to continue some of the conversations begun there. This meeting will involve short talks by keynote speakers but will also be process-oriented. For instance, participants will be asked to bring an object that connects to a particular way of thinking about mobility/materiality, and/or the concept of the translocal/transnational in the context of our journey. We will be documenting the event in various ways and we will work towards the creation of a cross-referenced Translocal Ecology Dictionary with entries provided in part by participants.
Keynote speakers include:
Dean Bavington, Memorial University, author of Managed Annihilation: An Unnatural History of the Newfoundland Cod Collapse
Robert Wilson, Syracuse University, author of Seeking Refuge: Birds and Landscapes of the Pacific Flyway
There are 40 places available. To reserve your place, please contact us as soon as possible at: niche.transnational.ecologies@queensu.ca. In your email, please explain briefly your interest in joining us and the object you (tentatively) will bring. Also please indicate your lunch preference: vegetarian or chicken.
Thank you,
Laura Cameron and Kirsten Greer,
Transnational Ecologies, NiCHE
http://niche-canada.org/transnational_ecologies
Kiitos and Mosquitoes: Cameron reports from the 6th ESEH Conference in Turku, Finland
The 2011 European Society for Environmental History conference, “Encounters of Sea and Land” is missing a word in its title: “Sun.” 24 hours of daylight and it’s a heatwave. Today is Saturday, the day after Canada Day, and the conference in Turku, Finland’s oldest city, has been ‘illuminating’ in every sense. Environmental history in Europe seems to spring from a different tradition than its North American counterparts. As a few American and Canadian delegates agreed, here the subject is more broadly envisaged and though the organizers form a “Scientific Committee,” the rich blend of disciplines interacting here —often in the same session— include, amongst many other subjects, history, geography, literature, anthropology, biology, economics and history of science. For example, the two sessions organized by Kirsten Greer and Jan-Henrik Meyer on the politics of transnational bird protection, not only included researchers from Germany, Denmark, the United States, Finland and Canada but also represented various cultures of geography, history, biology and environmental governance. The remarkable and often surprising intersections of interest fuel the conversations that have continued throughout the conference.
It is exciting to feel part of a “real international cast,” as Craig Colten puts it. English is the language of presentation but it is accented in diverse lyrical ways and we are surrounded constantly by conversations in Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, French, Russian, Hindi, German....The quality of papers tends to be high, perhaps because the meeting is on a two year cycle: “discussion is lively and adequate time is provided for it.” NiCHE was present at the scheduled meeting of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations, ICEHO (pronounced “Ice - ho”) and helped to elect Jane Carruthers (South Africa) as the new President and Libby Robin (Australia) as Vice President. Jane stated that in terms of disciplinary breadth, she envisioned ICEHO as open and welcoming, inclusive of anyone working in areas of environment and history. The next WCEH, it was decided, will be in Guimarâes, Portugal.
Though hot and humid this week, Turku—the European Capital of Culture 2011—is lush and green. It is also the home of former Montreal Canadiens captain, Saku Koivu, the composer Sibelius, a medieval cathedral (currently exhibiting works of Andy Warhol) and a castle. The conference has coincided with the Turku Medieval Market, and by the River Aura where you can see Arctic Terns, we mingle with knights, paupers and jesters. Finnish for “thank you” is “kiitos.” It rhymes with “mosquitoes,” and a few of those join the crowd too.
In hopes that gathering together some other voices can help convey better the flavour of all this international activity, here are a few comments from the field. Laura Hollsten, one of the key Finnish organizers, reflects that: “Tämä konferenssi alkoi Sverker Sörlinin todella hienolla yleisesitelmällä ja loppui yhtä upeasti Susan Fladerin ajatuksia herättävällä esitelmällä. Siinä välissä oli niin paljon hienoja esityksiä ja mukavia ihmisiä että joka päivälle löytyy monia kohokohtia.” [Translation: This conference began with a really excellent keynote lecture by Sverker Sörlin and ended with Susan Flader's fine and thought provoking speech at the final banquet. In between were so many great presentations and nice people that each day had many highlights.]
Robin Doughty from Texas has his eyes on the non-humans too: “It is amazing to see chaffinches literally at one’s feet, pied flycatchers at arm’s length and spotted flycatchers dallying on nearby fenceposts. Fieldfares are the “robins” of Turku. They bound about on the grass grabbing beakfuls of worms, while hooded crows stare at them balefully.”
Adriann de Kraker from the Netherlands notes that “This has been a well-organized, very Finnish and friendly conference in such a warm atmosphere that this completely underlines present global warming. So hot and humid in Turku and such long days. No wonder our colleagues at Turku have been working so hard. Er was hÿna geen tÿd voor hen om te slapen, want de nachten waren gewoon te kort [Translation: There was hardly any night time to sleep.]
Jan-Henrik Meyer, a member of NiCHE’s Transnational Ecologies group based in Denmark, sends greetings to Canada: “Auf der Konferenz konnte man unglaublich viel lernen - durch transnationalen Austausch und vor allem weil man so viele Verbindungen ziehen konnte zwischen unserer ARbeit und der Arbeit der Kolleginnen und Kollegen.” [Translation: The conference has been an excellent place for transnational exchanges and it has been a great learning experience, allowing us to make all sorts of connections between our own work and the work of others.]