Category: Conference

This multidisciplinary colloquium aims at filling a gap in research by studying the numerous interdependences between weather conditions and human food. It leans on two networks: that of the IEHCA, which works on the history and the cultures of food, and that dedicated to representations of weather (Perception of climate network).

Yet, both research fields of food and meteorology train an “interscience” (Parrochia) which requires a holistic approach of a “total phenomenon” (Mauss). The human beings who are biological and social, try to establish, by collective standards, the interaction between individuals and their environment, between the inside and the outside, in an aim of control, forecast and protection.

Studying relationships between food and meteorology responds, today in highly developed western countries, to a social search for harmony with “Nature”. What about other places? The colloquium will hand over to other cultures. The themes aim to be registered both in the present time and in a historical perspective. The topic will not be the history of food or the history of climate but crossed views. The consequences of the global warming on foodstuffs, as well as past and present scarcities and famines associated with exceptional weather conditions, do not constitute the heart of the subject, because these themes have been and are still the object of numerous colloquiums.

Four axes will be explored: perceptions, rhythms, discourses, signs.

39th Symposium, co-sponsored by the Geological Society of America

Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California

July 6 – 10, 2014

Conference Themes:
(1) Doing the History of the Earth Sciences: What, Why, and How?
and (2) California’s Place in the History of the Earth Sciences

In 1994, the Geological Society of America hosted the Penrose Conference, “From the Inside and the Outside: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the History of the Earth Sciences.” The focus of that meeting was on how practicing scientists (“insiders”) and professional historians (“outsiders”) approached research in our field. Twenty years later, it is fitting to ask where we stand presently on fundamental questions about scholarly inquiry into the development of the geosciences.

A workshop entitled “Race, alterity and affect: rethinking climate change-induced migration and displacement” will take place from 18 to 19 June at Durham University in England. From the H-Net Announcement: “the aim of this workshop is to bring debates about climate change and migration broadly defined into dialogue with contemporary critical race theory and postcolonial theory. Recent interventions have suggested that racialisation in the context of debates about climate change and migration unfolds through at least three interrelated tropes: naturalisation, the loss of political status, and ambiguity. This work also argues that given their historiographic emphasis, theories of the postcolonial on their own appear to be insufficient for properly theorising the alterity of the climate change migrant. This is because climate change and migration discourse is written in the future-conditional tense. In contrast, others have embraced theories of the postcolonial to interpret issues of climate change and mobility. Thus one of the aims of this workshop is to consider how critical race theory and theories of the postcolonial might be usefully reinterpreted to address the future-conditionality of climate change and migration discourse.”

To register, contact Ellie Whittles (e.c.whittles@durham.ac.uk).

Organisers: Andrew Baldwin (Durham University) and Katherine E. Russo  (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale)

Partners: COST Action IS1101 Climate change and migration; Institute for Advanced Studies (Durham University); Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale

(This German conference is about a flood in Apolda, Thuringia in 1613 and will be held 24-25 May 2013.)

Am 29. Mai 1613 wurden Teile Thüringens, darunter der Raum Weimar/ Apolda, von schweren Unwettern und Überschwemmungen heimgesucht. Das auch als „Thüringische Sintflut“ bezeichnete Ereignis forderte Hunderte Todesopfer und verursachte beispielsweise an der Ilm und Magdel enorme Sachschäden. Im Rahmen einer Tagung soll an den 400. Jahrestag dieser Katastrophe erinnert werden. Die Veranstaltung findet am 24. und 25. Mai 2013 in Apolda statt.

At the iCHSTM conference this summer, 22-28 July, ICHM will have a day of sessions around “Gaining it / losing it/ regaining it(?) Knowledge production in climate science, status anxiety, and authority across disciplines”. For more information, please see the program guide online. According to the provisional programme, it is currently planned to take place Friday, July 26. For more information about iCHSTM, please visit the conference website at http://ichstm2013.com/.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference
Communicating Climate Science: A Historic Look to the Future
June 8-13, 2013, Snow Mountain Ranch, Granby, CO, USA

The AGU Chapman Conference (AGUCC) will focus on communication about climate science to all sectors of society.  The Climate Change Community must move forward on multiple pathways to convey climate change research, mitigation and adaptation plans and policies and technologies to policy makers, planners, and society at all levels.  As climate science has developed over time, there has been a significant shift in relations between the science and political aspects thereof; where previously the development of the science was exclusively prioritized, now the focus lies in communicating the science to society. It is imperative that we determine an appropriate balance between these two elements, ensuring that neither is too shallow or deep.

Climate change discourse is not, and perhaps never was, “owned” by the climatological science community. Given the recent and heated “climate wars,” it is fruitful to examine the status anxiety in this field from historical and science studies perspectives.

The symposium addresses “knowledge at work” through case studies of knowledge-making, loss and regaining of knowledge-use, and dissent and authority in climate science and, by comparison, in other discourse communities.

October 12-19, 2013
La Foret Conference and Retreat Center (Colorado)
http://disccrs.org/disccrsposter.pdf

Application Deadline: February 28, 2013
Participation limited to 30 early-career Ph.D. scholars
Airfare and on-site expenses are supported through grants from NSF and NASA

The DISsertations initiative for the advancement of Climate Change ReSearch (DISCCRS, pronounced discourse) hosts symposia for early-career climate change researchers. Our goal is to catalyze international, interdisciplinary collegial networks and foster collaborative interdisciplinary research and dynamic interactions between science and society to enable us to better understand and respond to the myriad challenges posed by climate change.

University of Minnesota, April 5-7 2013

Critical climate change scholarship has demonstrated how the prospect of non-linear, catastrophic change in the conditions of human life demands new modes of critical engagement, and new forms of alignment between social and cultural theory, the earth and life sciences, and political practice (Cohen and Colebrook 2012; Szerszynski and Urry 2010)[1]. This work includes analyses of the political economy of the carbon trade (Bumpus and Liverman 2008; Thorne and Randalls 2007)[2]; the political implications of uncertainty and catastrophe in imagining climate futures (Clark 2010; Gabrys and Yusoff 2011; Hulme and Dessai 2008; Swyngedouw 2010; Zizek 2010); and the intersection of economic and ecological crisis in contemporary forms of power (Cooper 2010; Dibley and Neilson 2010; Massumi 2009). This workshop aims to contribute to these efforts and provoke new inquiries by posing the question: what is critical about critical climate change scholarship? Employing the dual implications of this phrase, we ask both how climate change demands a rethinking of the nature of critique, and how critical scholarship is more necessary than ever for efforts toward just and sustainable ecological futures.

The New Scholars group of NiCHE (Network in Canadian History and Environment) would like to invite submissions for the 3rd annual Place and Placelessness Online Workshop, taking place October 18-19, 2012.

Visit the workshop website for full details at http://virtualeh.wordpress.com/

This online symposium is intended for graduate students and recently graduated scholars from all disciplines that seek to better understand the complex relationships between nature and culture, with particular attention paid to the theme of climate. The workshop attempts to replicate the collegiate atmosphere of a shared-space meeting by using a variety of internet tools, including WordPress, Skype, Google Maps, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter to share ideas and participate in engaged discussion. This model should appeal especially to those who are eager for academic gatherings without the cost or carbon footprint of in-person meetings. The workshop encourages participation from students across the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences in an attempt to facilitate trans-disciplinary and transnational dialogue for global issues such as anthropogenic climate change.