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Centre for History and Economics

CRASSH

The Uses of Environmental History -
Cross-disciplinary conversations

13-14 January 2006

Department of Geography and
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities,
University of Cambridge, UK

Supported by CRASSH, the Department of Geography, and
the Centre for History and Economics, Cambridge.

Conference report now available.

[click for larger picture]

This conference aimed to provide some space to reflect on the achievements, diversity, and direction of environmental history, especially in its varied national, international and continental contexts. The conference provided a mix of both new and innovative work in the field, and relections on its methodology and disciplinary status. Key questions addressed included: Why is it that environmental history has sometimes fared better in other areas than history itself? What does this significant 'new' spread of history into other disciplines tell us of the importance and nature of history? Should environmental history be considered a discrete discipline with its own institutional presence, or essentially as a cross-disciplinary endeavour, and how is it best and most successfully 'done' in its different contexts?

Speakers included Bill Adams, Alan Baker, Chris Bayly, Marc Cioc, Robert Dodgshon, Georgina Endfield, Matthew Evenden , Richard Grove, Kirsten Hastrup, Poul Holm, Sverker Sörlin, Paul Warde, Fiona Watson, and Graeme Wynn.

The conference ran between Friday 13 January and Saturday 14 January.