Every month the NiCHE New Scholars Committee meets electronically on Google Hangouts to discuss books, articles, personal research, and general topics affecting environmental historians.
This month Julia Feuer-Cotter will be leading a discussion of smellscapes in environmental history. Julia’s work focuses on the sensual perception and imagination of the resource extracting industry in the Arctic. She is working with women who have experienced violence while working in Alaska’s Arctic Oil Fields and how critical the perceptual engagement with the environment is to the conceptual construction of place.
Using a chapter on Smellscapes by J.D. Porteous and the smell maps of Kate McLean as guideposts, Julia wishes to discuss:
- How is the perceptual engagement with the environment critical to the conceptual construction of place?
- How do you imagine the sensual impressions of places you’ve never had direct contact with?
- Do you think that the lack of sensual information of a place can make the place less relatable or evoke less emotions because there is a lack of perceptual memory?
This discussion will take place 1 December, 2014 at 2:00pm EST on Google Hangouts.
If interested in leading or participating in future New Scholars discussion or joining the New Scholars mailing list, please contact New Scholars Representative, Jessica DeWitt.
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is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, project manager, and digital communications strategist. She earned her PhD in History from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. She is an executive member, editor-in-chief, and social media editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). She is the Managing Editor for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. She is also President of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, a Girls Rock Saskatoon board member, and a Coordinating Team member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon-Treaty Six. A passionate social justice advocate, she focuses on developing digital techniques and communications that bridge the divide between academia and the general public in order to democratize knowledge access. You can find out more about her and her freelance services at jessicamdewitt.com.
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