The Fifth World Congress of Environmental History is Coming to Toronto in 2030!

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York University, Toronto, Canada, 2030

After much deliberation, given that we received four excellent proposals from different parts of the world, the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO) is delighted to announce that Fifth World Congress of Environmental History. For the first time, the congress will take place in North America, at York University in Toronto, Canada, in July 2030. The world congress will also be the annual meeting of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH).

Aerial view of York University
York University, Toronto

ICEHO has sponsored four World Congresses, one every five years: Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009; Guimarães, Portugal, in 2014; Florianópolis, Brazil, in 2019; and Oulu, Finland, in 2025. We are now moving to a four-year cycle so that the World Congress will not take place in the same year as the biennial meetings of the European, Latin American, and Asian environmental history associations. We hope this change will make it easier for scholars from around the world to participate. After 2030, the next congress will therefore take place in 2034.

York University has a strong tradition of environmental history scholarship, and Toronto is home to an active community of environmental historians across the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area, including at the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, and McMaster University. All three institutions will be involved in planning the conference. Jennifer Bonnell will lead the local organizing committee. A former executive member of the Network in Canadian History & Environment (NiCHE), she is currently co-editor of its peer-reviewed online journal, Papers in Canadian History and Environment. Bonnell will be assisted by co-chair Ravi de Costa, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, and by ASEH Executive Director Diana Di Stefano.

York University will welcome the global environmental history community to Toronto, a highly multicultural city of more than three million inhabitants with an enviable public transit system. Participants will feel at home on the comfortable Keele Campus, with its excellent facilities. They can look forward to field trips to places such as Niagara Falls and the Great Lakes, as well as opportunities to meet and exchange with Indigenous scholars, organizations, and knowledge keepers who sustain a vital part of Canada’s heritage.

In the coming years there will be annual ASEH congresses, as well as two meetings of the European, Latin American and Asian associations, where we will build up steam for the most global meeting of all in 2030.

Jennifer Bonnell. A middle-aged white woman with dark gray, chin-length hair, with glasses, smiling, wearing gray cardigan and white shirt.
Jennifer Bonnell

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Jessica DeWitt

NiCHE Editor-in-Chief, Social Media Editor at Jessica M. DeWitt: Editing and Consulting
is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, project manager, consultant, 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 and Associate Editor for Environmental Humanities. Closer to home, she is the President of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, a Coordinating Team member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon-Treaty Six, and a Conservation Advisory Committee member for the Meewasin Valley Authority. 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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