president's column: public humanities and environmental history

On a recent morning walk to campus, I noticed a new display in the window of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the newest state-of-the-art, transdisciplinary research science facility at the University of Wisconsin. The window held papers covered with doodles, cartoons, and thoughts on the "Counterfactual Campus." Celebrated cartoonist, novelist, and illustrator Lynda Barry had guided a diverse group of participants from the university and community to imagine the campus in 2112. Their simple renderings stood in marked contrast to the high-tech, plug-and-play labs housed inside the building. One particular cartoon stood out: under a plastic dome, three people are in conversation, and the caption read, "Too hot to be outside, lawns are indoors, the most precious things on campus are water and shade. Technology is everywhere but the best interactions are face-to-face or conversations while walking."

Later that same day I opened my inbox and read yet another article on the demise of the humanities, this time in Harper's. Thomas Frank's caricature of navel-gazing humanists, aloof from the realities of the everyday world, soaking up the tuition dollars of hard-working parents, hardly matches the changes I see afoot in environmental history and, more broadly, the humanities. Never in my professional career have I seen more students interested in experimenting with new forms of humanistic expression to engage with a diverse set of publics. Lynda Barry's drawing board workshop on the Counterfactual Campus is a case in point. Here were people from all walks of life imagining the future and harnessing the tools of creative thinking, writing, and illustration to succinctly express some of the critical issues of our time.

Our field is full of examples that showcase the public humanities in action.  At the University of Wisconsin, Tales from Planet Earth, a biennial film festival launched in 2007 has, through its workshops, classes, and film festival, connected to more than 10,000 people with over 100 films and visits from award-winning filmmakers. The Tales project has helped to expand our definition and understanding of the environment in the past, present, and future.

In early November, the Nelson Institute's Center for Culture, History, and Environment will host the fourth Tales from Planet Earth festival with "Futures" as its theme. Over the course of three days, the festival will screen more than 35 films; host panels and discussions that will feature a dozen filmmakers and include faculty, students, and community members; and showcase student work that asks audience members to reflect on questions of time, memory, and displacement in renditions of ecological pasts and environmental futures.

Film festivals like Tales or digital projects like "Year of the Bay," a creative collaboration of Stanford University's Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis to put crowd-sourcing to work to further public environmental history, are examples of the many ways that ASEH members are bringing digital media and the public humanities together to effectively link scholarship and public engagement.

 
Toward this end, ASEH is pleased to announce two new awards. The Public Outreach Award will recognize environmental history projects and programs that engage the public beyond the academy. The award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Environmental History recognizes academics and nonacademics whose substantial and sustained work outside of the classroom has promoted public and institutional awareness and appreciation of environmental history.

The first Public Outreach Award will be announced at the 2014 ASEH meeting in San Francisco. The first award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Environmental History will be announced at the 2015 ASEH meeting in Washington, DC. On behalf of ASEH, I would like to express sincere thanks to the active efforts of ASEH's Advisory Board on Professional Development and Public Engagement and the ad hoc committee (Marty Reuss, Heather Lee Miller, and Cindy Ott) in recognizing the need to honor and acknowledge different forms of work happening both within and outside the walls of the academy, work that is vital to the continued success and public support of environmental history. [See the section "The Profession" below for more details on the new awards and how to apply.]

 
In addition, ASEH is pleased to announce that a full-day preconference workshop on digital environmental history is planned for the 2014 San Francisco meeting.  We owe thanks to the generosity of the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) at Stanford University, and the initiative and enthusiasm of eight scholars from six universities who bring a range of expertise across different digital media platforms in making this happen. Three mini-workshops - In the Lab & Library, In the Classroom, and For the Public - will take place; participants will have the opportunity to discuss a variety of projects and programs on the theme, and brainstorm about opportunities, trends, and possible future collaborations. Please check back on the ASEH website (www.aseh.net) for further details.

Just a century ago, the motion picture became an ally of the American conservation movement, fundamentally shaping American interactions with and understanding of the environment. Today, more than ever, we need to think critically about the impact different media environments have upon our interactions with each other and the nonhuman world. Thinking about the future entails more than confronting the realities of climate change and the ever-increasing speed with which humans are consuming the resources of the planet. How we mobilize the digital to advance critical thought, produce new forms of scholarship, engage with communities, and foster change are important questions, too, in pondering the future of the environment and the field of environmental history.

Gregg Mitman, ASEH President

member news

Francesca Ammon is now Assistant Professor, City & Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania.

Craig Colten has added a new responsibility to his position at Louisiana State University, joining the Water Institute of the Gulf. See the link:

http://thewaterinstitute.org/stay-connected/news/2013/8/7/Colten-Joins-Water-Institute-as-Director-of-Human-Dimensions 

Co-editors Dolly Jørgensen, Finne Arne Jørgensen, and Sara Pritchard have published New Natures: Joining Environmental History with Science and Technology Studies, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013.

Adam Rome was named the Unidel Helen Gouldner Chair for the Environment at the University of Delaware. The chair is a new position, with a term of five years.

Christopher Sellers received the American Public Works Association (APWA) Abel Wolman Award recognizing the best new book published in the field of public works history, for Crabgrass Crucible: Suburban Nature and the Rise of Environmentalists in Twentieth-Century America, published by the University of North Carolina Press. 

announcements

Final Notice - ASEH Samuel P. Hays Fellowship Applications

For graduate students

Workshops at 2014 Conference

ASEH's Graduate Student Caucus has organized two workshops on writing and publishing for our 2014 conference. These are free for conference attendees, but application ahead of time is required. Click here for more info.

Graduate Student Liaison Position Available                         

The Graduate Student Caucus of ASEH invites applicants for the position of Graduate Student Liaison to the Executive Committee for the year 2014. ASEH will provide the recipient with a $500 USD travel subsidy to attend the executive committee meeting at the ASEH annual meeting in San Francisco in March 2014. Attendance at the executive committee meeting (Saturday, March 15) is required, as is consulting with graduate students and the graduate student caucus throughout the year. The term of the position runs from January 1 to December 31, 2014.

To apply for this position, please submit a one-page statement describing your interest in this position, including information regarding previous participation in ASEH activities and/or leadership and service experience. Please also submit a short c.v. (maximum three pages).

Applications should be sent via email to Gregory Rosenthal, current ASEH Graduate Student Liaison (rosenthal.gregory@gmail.com). The deadline for applications is October 4, 2013. All applicants will be notified of election results by October 14.

Note that to vote in this election one must be a current member of the ASEH Graduate Student Caucus. Membership in the caucus is simple! To join, please send a statement of interest to the current liaison, Gregory Rosenthal (rosenthal.gregory@gmail.com). If you are a graduate student in environmental history, please consider joining the caucus in advance of the October 4 election deadline!

Also note that graduate students can apply for both the liaison position and an ASEH travel grant, but they can receive only one in 2014.