The Northeast and Atlantic Region Environmental History Forum (NEAR-EH) is a group of scholars exploring the environmental history of the northeast, writ large: what becomes Canada, the United States, and the north Atlantic. This group first met in 2012 at the Massachusetts Historical Society, alternating back and forth across the border ever since (Boston ’12, Orono ’13, Charlottetown ’14, Lewisburg ’15, Halifax ’16, Mystic ’17). Participants submit pre-circulated papers, so they receive extensive feedback amid a more intimate, genial discussion. (And no registration & organization fees!)

This year NEAR-EH will be hosted at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum (CAFM) in Ottawa, Ontario. The museum is situated on a national historic site, Canada’s first federal experimental farm. The farm and the museum occupy historic buildings set amidst prime agricultural land in the heart of Canada’s national capital. Accommodations will be provided at Carleton University residences, which are located beside the heritage-listed Rideau Canal and within walking distance—through the national Arboretum—of the workshop site.

Watch for our call for next year’s workshop – we’d love to have you join us.

Original CFP is here; more information here.

Organizers:

Will Knight, Canada Agriculture & Food Museum, wknight@techno-science.ca
Brian Payne, Bridgewater State University, brian.payne@bridgew.edu

Program

Friday, June 15, 2018

Arboretum Walk 8:00-8:30

Breakfast 8:30-9:00

Session 1 (1.5 hours) 9:00-10:30

Benjamin Kochan, Boston University, “Capturing Trade: Competition for Market Share and Fisheries Development Funds in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, 1945-1954.”

Mark J. McLaughlin, University of Maine, “The Crown Forest, Modernization, and the State”

Troy Vettese, New York University, “Firm and Super-Firm: How Neo-Liberalism Confronts the Environmental Crisis”

Break (15 minutes) 10:30-10:45

Session 2 (1.5 hours) 10:45-12:15

Claire Campbell, Bucknell University, “‘Rising with the Tide of History’: The Age of Sail as Industrial Alibi”

Laurel Muldoon and Kirsten Greer, Nipissing University, “Engaging in Interdisciplinary Research: Connecting Bermuda’s Histories of Meteorology to Canada”

Kristian Price, University of Albany, “‘Briny Monsters’ and ‘Greedy Robbers’: The Role of Sharks in the Transatlantic Slave Trade”

Lunch Break (1 hour) 12:15-1:15

Session 3 (1 hour) 1:15-2:15

Magen Hudak, Trent University, “Socio-Cultural and Environmental Interpretations of Property Abandonment: Northeastern Nova Scotia”

Richard Judd, University of Maine, “Concord’s Poem: The Built Environment and Henry David Thoreau’s Sense of Place”

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Arboretum Walk 8:00-8:30

Breakfast 8:30-9:00

Session 4 (1 hour) 9:00-10:00

Kristoffer Whitney, RIT, “Banding Together: The Science and Politics of Migratory Birds in the Atlantic Flyway”

Josh MacFadyen, Arizona State University, Canada’s Last Green Revolution: Modern Agriculture in Prince Edward Island, 1950-2015

Break (15 minutes) 10:00-10:15

Wrap-Up Session and Planning for 2019 (1 hour) 10:15-11:15