Imaginings
stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, and other imaginative accounts of the natural world
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From Herders to Hikers, the Shifting Lives of Scottish Bothies
This piece was originally published by Edge Effects and is reposted here with kind permission. All photographs are courtesy of the author. By Jonas Stuck When I was 20 years old, I heard about huts in northern England and Scotland called bothies. I didn’t even know how to pronounce the name, let alone how to find…
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Saturday Morning’s Politics of Seeing
Nancy Jacobs, Professor of History at Brown University, Rhode Island (USA), provides a rich and personal account of practicing interdisciplinary research. On a field trip to uncover knowledge and beliefs about the African grey parrot in Cameroon, Nancy worked together with her brother (an experienced birder) and her field assistant (an ornithologist), gaining deep insights…
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Empire in a Bottle: Tales of a Beer Historian
By Malcolm F. Purinton “Why don’t you write your literature review about alcohol?†my African colonialism professor asked me during my master’s degree. “I can do that?!†I replied. The possibility of researching and writing on the history of beer and alcohol was, honestly, mind-blowing.
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Call for Papers: Migrations, Crossings, Unintended Destinations: Ecological Transfers across the Indian Ocean 1850–1920
Workshop 10 October – 12 October 2018 Location: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany Conveners: Ulrike Kirchberger (Kassel University), Christof Mauch (RCC) In the age of high imperialism, thousands of species of plants and animals were transferred between Australia, Asia, and Africa. Some of them were exchanged deliberately for economic, scientific, or aesthetic reasons.…
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Hazardous Cruises: Welcome to Toxic Paradise
by Jonas Stuck The summer is over, but the holiday season hasn’t stopped. Going on vacation is how many people calm down from a hectic work life and enjoy a good time. Cruise ships offer this experience all year round in the most naturally beautiful holiday destinations in the world: from the Arctic Circle or…
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CfA: RCC Fellowships 2018–2019
The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society invites applications for its 2018–19 cohort of postdoctoral and senior fellows. The RCC’s fellowship program is designed to bring together excellent scholars who are working in environmental history and related disciplines. The center will award fellowships to scholars from a variety of countries and disciplines. Applicants’ research…
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Call for Papers: The Environmental History of the Pacific World
Conference – Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, China 24 May – 26 May 2018 Location: Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, China Sponsors: The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich; Department of History and The Center for Oceania Studies, Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou; The Center for Ecological History, Renmin University of China, Beijing.…
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Call for Candidates: Doctoral Program Environment and Society
You can download the pdf of this call here. The Doctoral Program in Environment and Society invites applications from graduates in the humanities and social sciences who wish to research the complex relationships between environment and society within an interdisciplinary setting. Our program is based at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC),…
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Day 7. Danube Excursion: Bratislava—Munich
by Lea Wiser Bratislava → Munich Spending a night on a boat and waking up to views over the glimmering river is not something that happens every day. After a long night, a hearty breakfast helped us to regain our energy for the last guided tour with Peter Pisut, who specializes in the historical…