FYI.
Stefanie Rixecker
ECOFEM Coordinator
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Date sent: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 21:07:55 -0600
From: Melissa Wiedenfeld Charles Darwin Research Station
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Centre for World Environmental History notice
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send reply to: H-NET List for Environmental History <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 17:51:09 +0000
From: richardhugh grove <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Centre for World Environmental History notice
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Centre for World Environmental History
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton UK
The Centre for World Environmental History was launched in May 2002
under the aegis of the School of African and Asian Studies at the University
of Sussex. It is currently part-funded for an initial three year period
by the Research and Development Fund of the University.
The initative developed as a logical development of specialist courses and
research conducted by Sussex faculty for over nine years in tropical and
'Southern' environmental history at AFRAS and elsewhere in the University
and within the Institute of Development Studies. Sussex University has a
long research tradition focussed on environment and development problems in
the tropics and a close relationship with the Institute of Development
Studies (IDS) located on its campus. IDS is Britain's leading organisation
carrying out research on development problems of poorer countries. The
University also has a solid tradition in radical history and the history of
material culture and peasant society in the third world, exemplified in the
work of Professor Ranajit Guha and the Subaltern Studies School.
The Centre has a Director, Research Director, Faculty Associates, Visiting
Research Fellows and Associates. It has a close collaborative relationship
involving frequent staff exchanges with the Jawaharlal Nehru University in
New Delhi, India and the CNRS French Institute in the Union Territory of
Pondicherry, India.
Aims and background
Although global in its expertise and aims the CWEH specialises in the
environmental history of the tropics. It is the only Centre in Britain and
Europe with the capability to do so. As a distinctive named discipline
Environmental History is a relatively young subject, which has roots in
historical geography, historical ecology, the history of material culture
and some other subjects. It draws widely from sciences, social sciences and
the humanities. The first course in "Environmental History" taught as part
of a history syllabus appears to have been that taught at Strawberry Hill
College in London in 1969 by Henry Bernstein, a Californian who specialised
in research on forests and shipbuilding in the Indus-Ganges basin. Much of
the subsequent growth in the subject took place in the United States.
In the last decade however the centre of gravity of the subject has started
to move eastwards to Africa, South Asia, Australia, all regions where
environmental historians have become increasingly active and productive.
The environmental history of the tropics, subtropics is an area of growing
interest to scholars, many of the resident in in those regions. It is to
date, however, a research area in which American and European expertise is
extremely limited, but which we believe is a vital research priority
CWEH aims to reflect these shifts in direction. Its advent is part of a
recognition that the new discipline is especially relevant to acquiring
perspectives on the growing environmental crisis and analysing the
disproportionate serious impact of that crisis in the poorer countries of
the tropics, particularly in terms of the connected problems of soil
erosion, salinisation, water deficit, deforestation, species losses,
pollution and climate change.
CWEH runs a programme of workshops and conferences. Past meetings include a
workshop in June 2002 on Science, Empire and the Environment and a major
conference on the Environmental History of Asia in Delhi in December 4-7
2002. CWEH is also the base for a new journal on the subject, the
International Journal of Environmental History, launching in 2003.
CWEH Projects currently planned or in progress include:-
· A long-term ongoing study commenced in 1991 on the environmental history
of South Asia. This has been associated with two conferences on the
environmental history of South Asia and Southeast Asia in February 1992 and
December 2002 run in collaboration with the Indian CSIRO National Institute
for Science, Technology and Development Studies in New Delhi, the Forest
Research Institute at Dehra Dun (Uttar Pradesh) and Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi.
· A research project on water, disease and history. This study is especially
concerned with the connections between extreme climate events (especially El
Nino episodes) and malarial episodes in South Asia, and with the comparative
history of colonial irrigation projects in India, Australia and the Sudan.
The main researchers on this project are Dr Elizabeth Whitcombe, Dr Rohan
d'Souza and Dr Richard Grove
· A five-year micro-study of the environmental and ethnological study of
the Chotanagpur plateau in Jharkhand State, northeast India. Main
researchers: Dr Vinita Damodaran; Dr Daniel Rycroft.
· A major study of the environmental history of the British Empire and
Commonwealth entitled The British Empire and the natural world. This project
will be run in collaboration with a number of partner institutions
including the Jawaharlal Nehru University, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
and the Oxford Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine. Some component
parts of this project are already the subject of pilot studies while other
parts are related to work. We focus particularly on the forest, water and
botanical history of the empire, together with a substantial commitment to
understanding artistic and literary representations of the colonial
environment. A conference on the topic is planned for 19th-21st March 2003.
The programme is listed separately.
Research Staff of the Centre
Director: Dr Vinita Damodaran
Research Director: Dr Richard Grove
Visiting Research Fellow: Dr Vimbai Kwashirai (Zimbabwe and University of
Oxford)
Senior Research Associates: Dr Elizabeth Whitcombe; Dr Rohan D'Souza; Dr
Daniel Rycroft; Professor Brian Morris (Goldsmiths College); Dr Richard
Drayton (University of Cambridge); Professor Deepak Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru
University); Dr Mark Harrison (Wellcome Institute)
Associated Sussex Faculty:-
Dr Alan Lester
Professor James Fairhead
Professor Saul Dubow
Professor Melissa Leach (IDS)
Dr Lyla Mehta (IDS)
Dr Grace Carswell
Dr Maya Unnithan
Professor Brian Short
Professor Alun Howkins
Professor Partha Mitter
Graduate Student Associates include:-
Pauline Von Hellerman (Forest history of Nigeria)
Jessica Schaeffer (Conservation history of colonial Mozambique)
Further details
For further information on the Centre, its research or on its conference
programmes contact Dr Vinita Damodaran ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or Dr
Richard Grove ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) on 01273 606755 ext 2222
Postal Address:- CWEH, Arts C246, AFRAS, University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9QN.
International Conference on the Forest
and Environmental History of the
British Empire and Commonwealth
(Provisinal Programme Only; liable to change)
Centre for World Environmental History
University of Sussex, England
March 19th-21st 2003
Co-sponsors: The International Union
of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO):
The Museum of the
British Empire and Commonwealth, Bristol
Provisional Conference Programme
Wednesday 19th March
Registration and Coffee
Venue: The Meeting House, University of Sussex.
1030-1100
Jeff Burley (Oxford Forestry Institute) Introducing the theme
Richard Grove (University of Sussex CWEH) Preamble: The Imperial Earth:
planning an environmental and forest history of the British Empire
1100-1300
Panel 1: The natural world and the imperial frontiers of science
Chair: Jeff Burley (OFI)
Paper 1: David Arnold (SOAS)
Joseph Hooker on the Himalayan frontier
Paper 2: Libby Robin (Australian National University)
Putting science in its place: the arid zone and the nature of science
Paper 3: Ravi Rajan (UC Santa Cruz)
Forestry and science at the centre: the history of
the Imperial forestry Institute.
Discussant: Deepak Kumar (JNU Delhi)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1545
Panel 2: Colonialism, forests and transatlantic environmental history
(1)
Chairman: Elizabeth Whitcombe (National Hospital )
Paper 4: Logan Hennessy (University of California, Berkeley)
Silencing cultural land: American Indian and cooperative socialism in
post-colonial Guyana 1956-1980
Paper 5: Gordon Ingram (University of Victoria BC)
Aboriginal food production landscapes, unresolved legacies and
contemporary
ecosystem management of garry oak woodlands in Southwestern British Columbia
Paper 6: Larry Grossman (Virginia Tech.) The history of colonial
forest
policy in Jamaica from the late nineteenth century
Discussant:
1545-1600 Tea
1600-1830
Panel 3: Colonialism, forests and transatlantic environmental history
(2)
Chairman: Kate Showers (Boston University)
Paper 7: David Hsiung (Juniata College, Pennsylvania)
The British Navy and North American forests: New England, Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick ecosystems during the American revolution
Paper 8: Rita Pemberton (University of the West Indies, St Augustine)
Caribbean forests and British policy 1885-1945
Discussant:
Paper 9 : John Mackenzie (University of St Andrews)
Keynote Address Representing the imperial environment
Vote of thanks
Thursday 20th March
Room 1
0900-1045
Panel 4: Animals and the African environment, past and present.
Chairman: David Arnold (SOAS)
Paper 10: Sandra Swart (Stellenbosch University)
The history of the horse in the Cape Colony
Paper 11: Brian Morris (University of London)
Elephants in the history of Malawi
Paper 12: Maitseo Bolaane (University of Oxford)
Comnunity development-driven? The creation of Moremi/Okavango park in
Northern Botswana
Discussant:
1045-1100 Coffee
1100-1300
Panel 5: Forest and plantation history in the Asia-Pacific colonies
Chairman: Ravi Rajan UC Santa Cruz
Paper 13: Paul Star and James Beattie (Otago University)
The interplay of influences on New Zealand forest conservation 1870-1925
Paper 14:
Paper 15: Jeya Kathirithamby-Wells (University of Cambridge)
Writing an environmental history of the Malay peninsula
Discussant: Deanna Donovan (East-West Center Hawaii)
1300-14-00 Lunch
1400-1545
Panel 6: Tensions in colonial African forest policy
Chairman: Charles Adesina (Ibadan)
Paper 16: Vimbai Kwashirai (University of Oxford)
The Zambezi teak forests; African methods of exploitation and conservation
Paper 17: Karen Brown (University of Oxford)
Progressivism, silviculture and conservation in the early twentieth century
Cape Colony
Paper 18: Jacob Tropp (Middlebury College)
Dilemmas of dual control: balancing forest and native affairs management in
the colonial Transkei, South Africa
Discussant: Shane Doyle (University of Cambridge)
1545-1600 Tea
1600-1830
Panel 7: Debating science and colonial soil conservation policies
Chairman: Bob Evans (APU)
Paper 19: Grace Carswell (University of Sussex)
Colonial soil conservation policies: East African comparisons and resistance
Paper 20: Kate Showers (Boston University)
The establishment and dissemination of government-initiated soil
conservation in British Africa: scientific, ideological and bureaucratic
components
Paper 21: Bertram Mapunda (University of Dar es Salaam)
Ironworking, deforestation and soil erosion in the pre-colonial period:
myths and realities
Paper 22: Chris Conte (Utah State University)
Science, history and the contest over East Africa's Highland landscape
Discussant:
Thursday 20th March
Room 2
0900-1045
Panel 8: Nigerian forest history
Chairman: Sulemana Abudulai (Cambridge)
Paper 23: Olutayo Charles Adesina (University of Ibadan)
>From 'Aginju' to 'forest reserves': Crisis and conflict in forestry
legislations in colonial south-western Nigeria
Paper 24: Uyilawa Usuanlele (University of Ibadan)
Misconceptions, management and deforestation of Benin rainforest 1899-1945
Paper 25: Pauline Von Hellerman (University of Sussex)
Forests and forestry in Edo state, Southern Nigeria 1900-2000
Discussant: Jacob Tropp (Middlebury College)
1045-1100 Coffee
1100-1300
Panel 9: Examining Lesotho environmental history
Chairman: Brian Morris (University of London, Goldsmith's)
Paper 26: Meena Singh (University of Cambridge)
Reconstructing the environmental history of Lesotho
Paper 27: Motlatsi Thabane (National University of Malawi)
Deforestation and affforestation in Lesotho 1830-1970
Paper 28: Sandra Swart (Stellenbosch University)
The 'ox without horns' - the development of the Basoto pony and the
transformation of Sotho Society.
Discussant: Richard Grove (Sussex/ANU)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1545
Panel 10: Urban markets, globalisation and environmental history
Chairman: James Webb (Colby College)
Paper 29: Fenda Akiwumi (Hill College, Hillsboro, Texas)
Conflict timber: the political ecology of nineteenth century resource
exploitation in Sierra Leone
Paper 30: Sulemana Abudulai (University of Cambridge)
How will I feed my children? An analysis of urban land tenure dynamics and
environmental history in Northern Ghana
Paper 31: Government Phiri (University of Zimbabawe)
The effects of urbanisation on the environment: the case of Umtali 1890-
1923
Discussant: Chris Conte (State University of Utah)
1545-1600 Tea
1600-1830
Panel 11: Water, history and empire
Chairman: Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex)
Paper 32: David Mosse (SOAS)
Wells, water and history in South India
Paper 33: Lyla Mehta (IDS Sussex)
Water and history in Kutch, India
Paper 34: Rohan D'Souza (University of Sussex)
Capitalist property and the making of the calamity of season in colonial
Orissa
Paper 35: Daniel Connell (Australian National University)
History of water management in the Murray-darling basin
Discussant : Elizabeth Whitcombe (National Hospital)
1930 Conference Dinner at the White Hart, Lewes (alma mater of Thomas
Paine)
Friday 21st March
Room 1
0900-1045
Panel 13: Health, disease and environmental history
Chairman: Deepak Kumar (JNU)
Paper 36: Maya Unnithan (University of Sussex)
Environment, traditional medicine and the history of reproductive health in
Rajasthan
Paper 37: Shane Doyle (University of Cambridge)
Ecology, disease and health in Uganda
Paper 38 : Elizabeth Whitcombe (National Hospital, London)
The historical dynamics of malaria, cholera, famine and climate anomaly in
India since
1800
Discussant: Mark Harrison (Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine,
Oxford)
1045-1100 Coffee
1100-1300
Panel 14: Problems in South Asian forest history (1)
Chairman: Jan van Oosthoek (Gottingen)
Paper 39: Jayeeta Sharma (University of Cambridge)
Towards an environmental and forest history of Assam
Paper 40: Gunnel Cederlof (Uppsala University)
Establishing legal rights in forest tracts: the Nilgiri hills in the early
nineteenth century
Paper 41: Bengt Karlsson (Uppsala University)
Deforestation and conflicts over forests in Meghalaya
Discussant: David Arnold (SOAS)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1545
Panel 15: Problems in South Asian forest history (2)
Chairman: Maya Unnithan (Sussex)
Paper 42: James Webb (Colby College)
Forest history of highland Sri Lanka
Paper 43: Dhirendra Dangwal (University of Shimla, UP)
Colonialism, forestry and environmental change in the 19th century
Uttarchanchal
Paper 44: Daniel Rycroft (University of Sussex)
Railways, deforestation and representation in Northeast India 1860-1900
Discussant: Rohan d'Souza (University of Sussex)
1545-1600 Tea
Friday 21st March
Room 2
0900-1045
Panel 16: Problems in East African forest history
Chairman: John Mackenzie (University of St Andrews)
Paper 45: Thaddeus Sunseri (State University of Colorado)
Controlling people and forests in the Rufiji basin, Tanganyika 1921-1961
Paper 46: Andrew Hurst (Oxford University)
Scandinavian influence on forest management in socialist Tanzania 1967-1984
Paper 47: Michael Tuck (Northeast Illinois University)
"Omugezibezi akuguza ekibira": a clever man sells you a forest - an
examination of forest demarcation and usage in early colonial Uganda
Discussant: Pauline von Hellerman
1045-1100 Coffee
1100-1300
Panel 17 Environmental history at the margins of empire
Chairman: Libby Robin (ANU)
Paper 48: Jessica Schafer (Sussex University)
Who's to blame? A foray into the history and development of conservation
policy in former Portuguese colonies.
Paper 49: Deanna Donovan (East-West Center, Hawaii)
The timber trade on the Nepal/India border: a history
Paper 50: Gaston Gordillo (University of British Columbia BC)
Inscribing history in the forests that were once grasslands; The making of
nature in the Argentinean Chaco.
Paper 51 Emma Reisz (University of Cambridge)
'Darrang' between the lines: the forest frontiers of
north-east India in the nineteenth century
Discussant: John Mackenzie (St Andrews)
1300-1400 Lunch
1400-1545
Panel 18: Environmental history and environmentalism at the imperial
centre
Chairman: Mark Harrison (Oxford)
Paper 52: Jan van Oosthoek (University of Gottingen)
The colonial origins of scientific forestry in Britain
Paper 53: Robert Evans (Anglia Polytechnic University)
Past and present soil erosion in Britain and its impact and costs
Paper 54: Susan Dobrovolny (Queen Mary College, University of London)
The environment of the Imperial centre: water supply and Thames pollution
during the nineteenth century
Discussant: Brian Short (Sussex)
1545-1600 Tea
1600-1700
Summing up: Deepak Kumar (JNU Delhi) The British Empire, science and
environmental history
Roundtable Discussion
Future plans for the CWEH project
And publications
The environmental history of
the British empire and Commonwealth.
Closing Remarks
>
_________________________________________________________________
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El contenido de este mensaje es de absoluta responsabilidad de su autor.
Charles Darwin Research Station.
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************************************
Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker, Director
Environment, Society and Design Division
Lincoln University, Canterbury
PO Box 84
Aotearoa New Zealand
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ph: 03-325-2811, x8643
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