Canadians at Versailles: ESEH 2015

"Versailles serenity," StripeyAnne, Flickr

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In a little less than a week, the biennial meeting of the European Society for Environmental History will begin. This year, it’s being held in France, at the Université de Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines — within spitting distance of a rather famous palace.

A number of Canadians and Canadianists will be presenting papers and posters. I’ve compiled the following list from the conference’s final programme:

Tuesday 30 June

Rivers and Waterscapes in the Pre-modern World (14:00-15:30)
From Discovery to Management: Monarchy and Water in New French Territories (Canada-Alsace, 17th-18th Centuries)
Benjamin Furst, Université de Haute Alsace/Université de Montréal

Cultivation, Chemistry & Consequences (16:00-17:30)
“Kingdom of Cotton”: The Social and Environmental Consequences of Cotton Cultivation in Guatemala, 1948-1985
Patrick Chassé, University of Saskatchewan

Wednesday 1 July (Happy Canada Day!)

Other Tools, Other Narratives Film Showing (09:30-10:30)
Arresting the Petro-economy: The Unist’ot’en Living Blockade, Leah Temper (23 minutes, Canada)

Technologies of Empire: Networks, Mobilities, and Exchanges in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire (11:00-12:30)
Industrialists and Economic Botanists: Developing Commodities Frontiers in the 19th Century British World
Jim Clifford, University of Saskatchewan

Five Centuries of Climate Change in Canada (11:00-12:30)
Organizer: Dagomar Degroot, University of Western Ontario
Session Chair: Graeme Wynn, University of British Columbia

Exploring the Canadian Arctic in a Changing Climate, 1560-1630
Dagomar Degroot

Anticipating Climate Change in New France
Colin Coates, York University

Climatic Challenges During Early French Exploration and Colonization in Canada
Sam White, The Ohio State University

Securing the Environment in Times of War (11:00-12:30)
War and Environment: Sherwood Forest and Navy Building, 1660-1670
Sara Morrison, Brescia University College (University of Western Ontario)

Parks and Gardens II (14:00-15:30)
“Save Garden City!”: Competing Environmental Histories of 55 Hectares in British Columbia
Lisa Powell, University of British Columbia / University of the Fraser Valley

Thursday 2 July

Water for Energy: Socioecological Dimensions of Hydropower Production (11:00-12:30)
Water as a source of geographical imaginations and energy production: the territorialities of the Euro-Canadians and Atikamek people in the St-Maurice River valley (1850-1930)
Stéphane Castonguay, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Understanding Sustainability and its Limits in Pre-Modern Europe (11:00-12:30)
Organizer: Richard C. Hoffmann, York University
Session Chair: Richard W. Unger, University of British Columbia

Maintaining Fertility in Medieval Mediterranean Farming: Ideas and Advice of Petrus de Crescentiis (ca.1305) and Gabriel Alonzo de Herrera (1513)
Richard C. Hoffmann

Friday 3 July

Poster Session (09:30-10:30)
Hewers of Wood: Biomass energy in Canadian agro-ecosystems, 1850-2010
Joshua MacFadyen, University of Saskatchewan

Time, Space & Nature: the geographer’s “uneasy triangle”
Graeme Wynn, University of British Columbia

Media, Architecture and Global Environmental Imaginaries (11:00-12:30)
Media Environments: Icebergs on Screens
Rafico Ruiz, McGill University

Global Histories of Nineteenth-century Leather Tanning (14:00-15:30)
Organizer: Andrew Watson, York University
Session Chair: Jim Clifford, University of Saskatchewan

Using Digital Tools to Track Nineteenth-century Leather Tanning Supply Chains
Andrew Watson

Monasteries and the Environment II: Rough Wilderness, Silent Contemplation and Early Mining Industries in Monastic Writing (14:00-15:30)
Mining, Writing, Archiving: An 18th Century Friar on the Edge of Empires
Sabrina Peric, University of Calgary

The University of Saskatchewan’s Geoff Cunfer will also be chairing two sessions. These are: “Modeling: A Research Frontier of Interdisciplinary Environmental History” (Thursday, 14:00-15:30) and “Sustainability in Industrializing Land-use and Food Systems? What we Learn from Applying Socio-Ecological Indicators to Historical Periods” (Friday, 09:30-10:30).

Bon voyage et bonne chance à tous!

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Tina Adcock

Assistant professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University. I research and teach Canadian and environmental history, with a special focus on the Arctic and Subarctic.

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