CHESS 2016: Call for Participants

May 27-29, 2016

Mountain and Eastern Slope geographies have hosted human and biotic communities since time immemorial. Aboriginal, newcomer, territorial and modern-era people have fostered signiﬁcant relationships with bison and other wildlife, and will likely continue to do so as bison restoration projects unfold both within Banﬀ National Park and along the Eastern Slopes in traditional territories of the Iyarhe Nakoda, Blackfoot (Niitsitapi) and Ktunaxa people.

The 2016 Canadian History and Environment Summer School (CHESS) will meet in Banff, Canada’s first National Park, in the last weekend in May (27-29). Field school encounters will be organized in traditional aboriginal mountain and Eastern Slope territories, providing an opportunity for participants to reflect on bison landscapes. Presentations and on-the-ground tours will introduce understandings of mountain wildlife habitat, the past and present of national park natural history, the varied human imagination of wildlife, and how national parks are being conceptualized as both Aboriginal and bison landscapes.

To attend:

Spaces are limited. Please send a message by October 20, 2015 to chess16@ucalgary.ca, attaching to your message a short letter of introduction explaining why you are interested in attending, as well as a C.V. detailing your scholarly trajectory and current coordinates.