American Society for Environmental History: Guidelines for Special Interest Groups

The American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) supports the formation of special interest groups (SIGs) that foster members’ connections with peers who share research fields, other common interests, or purpose.

Descriptions of current ASEH SIGs can be found on the ASEH website: https://aseh.org/Interest-Groups/

For those interested in having ASEH recognize a SIG, ASEH requests the group submit a letter to the ASEH Executive Director, who will then circulate it for review by the ASEH Council. The letter should include 1) The SIG’s name 2) Brief description of the group’s purpose (< 150 words) 3) List of other organizations the SIG liaises with, and 4) Contact information for the SIG’s leadership. ASEH Council will recognize a SIG if it determines that doing so will further ASEH’s mission.  After reviewing the letter, the SIG will be informed of the council’s decision. Every two years SIGs will be asked if they want to renew their designation with ASEH.

ASEH administrative support to SIGs consists of:

1)     listing the SIG with a description and contact information on the ASEH website

2)     arranging meeting space for the SIG at the conference hotel during ASEH’s annual conference

3)     including SIG events on registration for the conference

4)     administering any financial transactions related to the conference for SIGs

5)     seeking sponsorships for SIG events held at the conference

6)     publicizing SIG events

ASEH encourages SIGs to hold an event during ASEH’s annual conference. SIGs can work with the ASEH Executive Director to reserve a space within ASEH’s meeting space at the conference hotel. Note, ASEH does not normally schedule events that conflict with the concurrent sessions. 

In the past, some SIGs have held their meetings over breakfast. Initially, the cost of those breakfasts was covered by the tickets sold to attendees. In recent years, ASEH has subsidized those breakfast meetings to offset the high cost of hotel catering. That practice has become financially unsustainable due to rising food and beverage costs.  As a result, SIGs choosing to hold breakfast meetings will need to cover the costs through ticket sales and/or outside funding (any such outside funding would need to be secured prior to the opening of conference registration). Due to hotel policy, meetings held in hotel space cannot bring in outside food and beverage service. SIGs interested in hosting an event that includes a meal should consult with the Executive Director early in the fall preceding the conference. 

ASEH Special Interest Groups

Women's Environmental History Network (WEHN)

The Women's Environmental History Network (WEHN) provides a welcome space, both figuratively and literally, in which newcomers to environmental history have an opportunity to meet with and network with senior scholars in the field. Our network has proven especially valuable for early-career scholars who seek role models as they chart their professional paths. 
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WEHN organized in 2015, and its community expanded in 2016 to include hosting and sponsoring an annual networking reception at ASEH; our reception occurs each year on the Thursday of the conference. Members also convene at other environmental history conferences worldwide. Our website,  https://www.envhistwomen.com, highlights books published by WEHN members, and shares information about professional and networking opportunities for environmental historians. Our list-serv, with nearly 500 recipients, shares information about jobs and postdocs, conference panel creation, and other networking opportunities.

 

WEHN strives towards a more gender-inclusive and anti-racist academic world. We welcome nonbinary scholars and the LGBTQIA+ community into our network.

Envirotech

Envirotech is a special interest group (SIG) within the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) and the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) that focuses on the interrelationship of technology and nature. Since the early 1990s, “nature and technology” have received greater attention in conference presentations, journals, and monographs by historians of technology and environmental historians. Active since 2000, the Envirotech SIG explores ways to investigate this intersection and support researchers in this inquiry.

We look forward to welcoming any scholar interested in nature and technology from any disciplinary backgrounds. We especially encourage participation from graduate students, early-career scholars, and scholars outside North America.

To find out more about ways to participate in the Envirotech SIG, please visit our website: https://www.envirotechhistory.org/

Queer@eh

Queer@eh  is a group that started at the ASEH conference in Eugene in 2022 and has been growing since to build visibility and solidarity among queer/LGBTQA+-identifying scholars working across the environmental humanities. We are open to all fields, periods, and geographies across the environmental humanities. For specific questions, feel free to reach out to Queer@EH organizers and ASEH members Paul G. Nauert (pnauert@eou.edu) or Anna Lehr Mueser (anna.mueser@princeton.edu). 

Please visit the queer@eh page to learn more about this group and how to join. 

Water History

War and Environment - more coming soon

Food, Agriculture, and the Environment - more coming soon

Affiliate Groups

Animal History

While our Animal History interest group formally emerged in 2024 at the Denver meeting, historical animal studies has long been a central feature at ASEH. The purpose of this group is to bring together students and scholars of animal history, environmental histories of wildlife, and historical animal studies, broadly defined. International community is our goal! We are open to all fields, time periods, geographies, and approaches. We are open to professors, students, and interested members of the public. To join the community and learn about the book group that meets virtually 5-6 times per year, send an email to Dan Vandersommers at:dvandersommers1@udayton.edu.

Health & the Urban Environment Working Group is a monthly, virtual working group that brings together scholars from the subfields of urban history, environmental history, and history of medicine/public health to consider the deep interconnections between health and urban environments. Our goal is to create conversations in a space dedicated to sharing methodologies and works-in-progress. We welcome scholars working on any geography or time period with a commitment to engaging with new ideas and questions that will advance our understanding about how the health of populations, and the urban environments in which they live, have been historically co-produced. You can join here: https://www.chstm.org/group/health-and-urban-environment or contact one of the conveners: Melanie Kiechle (mkiechle@vt.edu), Kristin Brig-Ortiz (krisinb@wustl.edu) or Evan Roberts (eroberts@umn.edu).