ICEHO Bulletin 3
January 2015
Happy New Year from all at ICEHO!
Happy new year from all in the International
Consortium of Environmental History
Organizations. We are a ‘network of networks’for environmental history in universities,museums, publishers and other institutions.
We sponsor International Congresses every 5years (next one in 2019). Between Congresses,
we want to work actively to promote
environmental history in all its forms: as
scholarship and research, informing public policy
and education, and in promoting collaboration
between environmental historians around theworld. Our website is regularly updated – we arekeen to publicise your conferences and events:

http://www.iceho.org/----------------------------------------------------------------

Thinking through the
Anthropocene: Museums,Humanities, Art
It has been a busy few months for me, travelingand learning about the Anthropocene. The
Anthropocene is the proposed geological epoch
where human activities are recognized as aplanetary force, and it has become an important
touchstone for talking about global change inenvironmental humanities researchcommunities in universities and museums.
November and December 2014 have seen anumber of big international events in the USA,Germany and Sweden.
The Anthropocene concept, although originallydeveloped by scientists working to understandclimate change and planetary environmental

change, has strong ‘interdisciplinary’applications – it offers new opportunities for
Science to meet Art and Humanities – and all areworking together to engage public participation
and responsibility in environmental changes thatare already affecting the planet, often affecting
its most vulnerable people and ecosystems first.
Some interesting methodologies have emergedat the various events hosted by ICEHO members,
enabling the Environmental Humanities to joinin new ways to Anthropocene debates.
ICEHO Partner, the Center for Culture, Historyand Environment (CHE) at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, hosted an ‘AnthropoceneSlam’, 8-10 November 2014. This was based on
the idea of a poetry slam, but instead of poems,
the focus was ‘objects of the Anthropocene’.
http://nelson.wisc.edu/che/anthroslam/ (Youcan catch up on Twitter #anthroslam )Participants performed their objects, rather thanpresenting scholarly papers about them. The aim
was to select objects for an Anthropocene
Cabinet of Curiosities (Wunderkammer) to travelto the Deutsches Museum in Munich

Gregg Mitman admires the first of the objects from the Slam,environmental historian and artist Jared Farmer’s ‘Fossil
BlackBerry’, installed in a special cabinet just in time for theopening night of the Munich exhibition.

Willlkommen im Anthopozän: Unsere
Verantwortung für die Zukunft der Erde (inEnglish: Welcome to the Anthropocene: The
Earth in Our Hands) at the Deutsches Museum inMunich is the first gallery on the Anthropocene
in the world, in the biggest Science andTechnology Museum. It has been developed inpartnership with Major ICEHO Member RachelCarson Center. The gallery opening on 4
December was packed. The exhibition is planned
to be running till 2016.

of the Campus – used museums and ‘slow
media’ such as graphic novels as ways to think
through the Anthropocene. If you are interested
in more details there are some terrific websites:

Although the Anthropocene is still a hypotheticalgeological epoch for the Earth scientists, it is aconcept that is guiding joint historical andmuseological research projects between theMunich partners. It is also helping the ‘greening’of the Deutsches Museum with its growing
emphasis on environmental awareness.

And there is good twitter feed
#anthropocenecampus

Art and Science come together at the Haus derKulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, where in
October the formal committee considering thestratigraphical arguments for the Anthropocene,
chaired by geologist and science communicator,
Jan Zalasiewicz from the University of Leicester.
Less than two weeks later the Anthropocene
Campus at HKW brought together teachers andstudents (some 150 people) who weredeveloping a curriculum for the Anthropocene.
Several ICEHO partners were prominent in thisevent, including the Rachel Carson Center and
the KTH Environmental Humanities laboratory. It
was an exciting meeting of artists, historians andearth scientists all concerned about globalchange and innovative adaptations to it.
The HKW Anthropocene Campus, which is partof its bigger Anthropocene Project, began withthe science of the Anthropocene andcomplemented this with economics, big globalinstitutions, humanities and arts. The idea of thisexercise was to create a ‘curriculum’ forteaching the Anthropocene – in schools,
universities and potentially more broadly. The
Slow Media Collective – one of the nine groups

http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/20
14/anthropozaen/anthropozaen_2013_2014.php
http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/20
14/anthropozaen_curriculum/anthropozaen_cur
riculum_1.php

If I were to sum up the discussions over this‘month in the Anthropocene’, I would say:

We are not all in the Anthropocene inthe same way.
The ‘we’ of the Anthropocene isproblematic – The ‘imaging group’designed a tee-shirt: Who ARE we?
The very present ‘now’ is making it hardto get into a mind frame that allows
thinking in a longer now with moreintergenerational and interspecies
justice
The future looms large – and needs
more different expertise at the table.
History and the humanities are needed
to extend ideas about the future
beyond numbers and prediction to
include quality of life and ways of living

There is no doubt we are living in rapidlychanging times and this is stressful for all.
Present models need creative adaptations toenable our grandchildren to have a chance of agood quality of life.
Libby Robin (ICEHO President)
From Madison, Berlin, Stockholm and Munich
November-December 2014.

GUIMARÃESAPPLICATION FOR GREEN CAPITAL OFEUROPE
From Jane Carruthers (Immediate PastPresident, ICEHO)We are very proud to announce that ICEHO
representatives have been invited by the Mayorof Guimarães, Dr Domingos Bragança, and theRector of the University of Minho, Prof. Dr
António M. Cunha, to join the Scientific andMonitoring Committee for the application ofthe city of Guimarães to become the European
Green Capital in the next few years. This
invitation is a great honour for ICEHO andcements the close relationship we developedwith the City and the University over their
hosting of the ICEHO World Congress in July2014.

In 2013 Guimarães was awarded the accoladeof Europe’s Cultural Capital and winning theGreen Capital Award would be yet anothermajor achievement for this beautiful city. Green
Capital was conceived by the European
Commission in 2010 to recognise the role thatcities can play in improving the environmentand also to encourage urban authorities tocommit themselves to further environmental
action and best practice. Winners since 2010
have included Stockholm, Hamburg andCopenhagen among others, and Guimarãesaims to join this prestigious group. As a city witha long history of leadership in the leather andcloth trades – as well as wine and light industry– in recent years Guimarães has taken a strong
lead in rejuvenating itself as a clean, liveable
environment proud of its environmental history
in the Couros district as well as its local andnational history and culture. The University ofMinho has strong civil engineering andarchitectural faculties and is well placed toassist the Green Capital bid. We are pleased
that ICEHO’s World Congress focussed attention
on the historical aspects of environmental
consequences.

(Photograph: Jane Carruthers)
The Landscape Laboratory, Guimarães. Thisrenovated factory building alongside a restored urbanriver is the focal point of the National EcologicalReserve. It is an environmental outreach centre andits laboratories are used by students of the Universityof Minho who have an interest in environmental
engineering and urban restoration. It is surrounded
by a large and thriving vegetable garden.
Google ‘Landscape Laboratory Guimarães’ for more
images and further details.

SAHS Conference
1-3 July 2015
Stellenbosch, SA

Southern Africa, this conference strives to reflect
the broad diversity of history. We particularly
seek papers on the following themes:

25th Biennial Conference

Unsettling Stories and UnstableSubjects
Department of History
University of Stellenbosch
The conference in 2015 marks the 50th birthdayof the Southern African Historical Society (SAHS),
a foundation member of the ICEHO group, andan active African association that has particularstrengths in environmental history and justice.
Keynote speaker: Jonathan Hyslop, (ColgateUniversity).
Our “unstable subjects” – be they themes orhistorical agents – resist historiographicalconsensus. The dead rest uneasily in southernAfrica, and historians are haunted by ourresponsibility to them. Amidst controversy,confession and accusation and amidst a
multiplicity of sites of memory and meaning,those who research the past have to deal withthe uncomfortable ghosts of previous centuries.
We historians must offer bold analysis based ona nuanced understanding of the complexities ofchange over time. Our stories can disrupt
complacent presentist narratives. While they
have the power to unsettle, they – in turn – areunsettled by each new generation of historians.
This biennial conference creates space forprofessional and public historians and postgraduate students to meet with archivists,
documentary film-makers and heritage
practitioners. As the professional body for

Disciplining the disciplines: changes,
constraints and opportunities in a
globalising academic world
Raiders of the Lost Archive: archival
survival in twenty first century SouthernAfrica
The geists in our machines? New ways ofthinking about industrialization
The Anthropocene and the end ofanthropocentric history?
Festivals of History: exhibitions,museums, tours, war commemorations
and public history
Whither (or wither) Political History?
Let a thousand flowers bloom?
Reflections on Southern African
historiography
Business history in Africa: corporations,consumers, culprits, casualties andcronies
Versions of Africa: victors, victims,
vitality in socio-economic history
Lives through the lens: history,
photography and film
Thirsting for the truth: water histories
and watering history

Paper submissions should include an abstract(max 200 words) and a very short CV (of a briefparagraph).
Panel submissions should include a minimum ofthree papers (each with a 200-word abstract andshort CV), a proposed chairperson (if possible),and a 100-word panel abstract. Send by 1 March2015 to sss@sun.ac.za.
Early-Bird Conference registration fee: R2000(Regular fee: R2 500) Conference registrationcommences: 1 March 2015 and early-bird
registration ends on 10 April 2015
Post-graduate fee: R1 600. There will also be alimited number of post-graduate bursaries topay the registration fees.
For more information, please email Sandra
Swart: sss@sun.ac.za

http://www.sahs.org.za/node/10

Other upcoming
conferences

The White Horse Press is always interested in book proposals
in the field of environmental history. Please contact SarahJohnson (sarah@whpress.co.uk) if you would like to discuss
proposals or ideas.

Environment and History

http://aseh.net/conferenceworkshops/dc-conference2015

Turning Protest
Into Policy:
EnvironmentalValues andGovernance inChanging
Societies March
18-22, 2015

International
Water History
Conference
http://www.iwha.net/
conference

Delft
The Netherlands
June 24-26 2015

The ESEH biannual
conference will be in
Versailles France
30 June-3 July 2015

Registration will be available in
mid-January

http://eseh.org/event/up
coming-conference/

The White Horse Press announces
the twentieth anniversary issue ofEnvironment and History (Vol. 20:4),
featuring short think-pieces tostimulate discussion and debate,
including a round table event at theupcoming ESEH conference inVersailles in June 2015.
Global Environment: A
GlobalJournal of History andEnvironment
Natural and Social
Sciences is a forum forstudies on theenvironment and world
history, especiallycontemporary topics.
Through a diversity ofapproaches andthemes, we develop anenvironmental
perspective on world
history, including
Eds: Mauro Agnoletti perspectives frombeyond the western& Gabriella Corona
centric worlds whereenvironmental history
has developed.

(2 issues per year)“bringing together different areas of expertisein the natural and the social sciences, tofacilitate a common language and a commonperspective in the study of history.”
New WHP books due in early 2015, include A Fairytale inQuestion: Historical Interactions between Humans andWolves, edited by Patrick Masius and Jana Sprenger(ISBN 978-1-874267-84-3); and Fluid Frontiers: NewCurrents in Marine Environmental History, edited by John
Gillis and Franziska Torma (ISBN 978-1-874267-86-7). The
next volume in our growing ‘Themes in EnvironmentalHistory’ series will be Trees; Bioinvaders, Landscapes,Indigenous Knowledge and Animals.

Science and Hope: A Forest History, by John Dargavel
and Elisabeth Johann, is now in paperback, £25/€32/$40; ISBN
978-1-874267-87-4.

How do we choose the books we include in ICEHObulletins? Is your publisher a member of ICEHO?
If so, we can include your book in future bulletins.
Just let us know.

We are very pleased to announce that Wits
University Press – the publishing arm of theUniversity of the Witwatersrand inJohannesburg has agreed to become a memberof ICEHO. Two recent WUP books will be ofparticular interest to environmental historians.
Based on interviews
and documentaryresearch, Beinart andBrown’s African Local
Knowledge andLivestock Healthcreatively integrates
indigenous
knowledge within thecontext of the growthof scientificveterinary research inSouth Africa.

Forgotten World isthe first historical andarchaeological overview

Do you want to join ICEHO?
From as little as $US100/year.
Information online:
http://www.iceho.org/membership/
Membership form:
http://www.iceho.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/01/ICEHO-MembershipApplication.pdf
Or contact treasurer, Steve Anderson
Steve.Anderson@duke.edu

If you have contributions for the next bulletin,
please send to your regional representative:of the Africanstone-walled
settlements in theeastern interior ofSouth Africa. An
intriguing
community,
strongly based oncultivation, has
eluded scholarshipfor decades and is
now brought tolife.

Alan MacEachern (Canada) amaceach@uwo.ca
James Beattie(Oceania)jbeattie@waikato.ac.nz
John McNeill (US) mcneillj@georgetown.edu
José Padua (South America) jpadua@terra.com.br
Mauro Agnoletti (Europe)mauro.agnoletti@unifi.itRanjan Chakrabarti (India)ranjan.jadavpur@gmail.com
Shen Hou (China) houshen@ruc.edu.cn

Or to libby.robin@anu.edu.au