CfP: Transformations of the Earth—International Graduate Student Workshop in Environmental History

Remin University, China, and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Germany, invite interested, advanced graduate students or early postdocs to a conference giving them the chance to present the works their currently studying. The deadline for the application is 1 January 2016:

Location: Renmin University, China

Conveners: Christof Mauch (Rachel Carson Center), Mingfang Xia (Renmin University), Donald Worster (Renmin University)

This conference is open to advanced graduate students and early postdocs, regardless of department, discipline, or country. The purpose of the conference is to provide promising, but inexperienced scholars an opportunity to present their work in progress (e.g., a chapter from a dissertation) before an international group of peers and a panel of senior mentors in the field.

Our theme is meant to be broad and inclusive. We will consider topics from any period of history or any part of the world. But especially we want to include new research on how societies, large or small, have transformed the natural world around them materially and in the process have changed their own structure, views of the world, or social-economic relations. In other words, we are interested in exploring the dynamics of reciprocal change. Studies of ideology or cultural attitudes are welcome, but only if they include the material dimensions of social/ecological transformation.

Those interested in attending should send a written proposal of one page in length (or about 300 words) and include a title and a one- or two-page CV. The proposals should be in English, although for speakers of Mandarin it is permissible to provide both a Chinese language version and an English language version.

 The deadline for consideration is 1 January 2016. Successful proposals will be announced around 1 February, and complete drafts of papers (minimum of 5,000 words in English or the equivalent in Chinese characters) will be required by 1 May 2016. All papers will be circulated to the participants in advance and will not be presented orally during the conference.

The call for papers can be found here.

Please send proposals to both Agnes Kneitz a.kneitz@ruc.edu.cn and Annka Liepold events@rcc.lmu.de.

The senior mentors, who will provide critiques of all the papers, include Christof Mauch, director of the Rachel Carson Center, Munich; Peter C. Perdue, professor of Chinese history, Yale University; Lise Sedrez, professor of Brazilian history, Universidade Federal do Rio De Janeiro – Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Sociais; and Mingfang Xia, Shen Hou, and Donald Worster, all faculty members in the Center for Ecological History.

Travel expenses for students living outside of China will be paid by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. Students living within China will be reimbursed for their travel expenses by Renmin University, which will also provide hotel rooms and meals for three days for all participants.

This is a co-sponsored event by the Center for Ecological History, Renmin University of China, and, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.