It’s been twenty years since we hosted the first Canadian History & Environment Summer School. And while plans for a full CHESS 2026 fell through, on Sunday, 31 May, immediately prior to the Canadian Historical Association / Atlantic Canada Studies conferences in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, we’re hosting an all-day field trip & an evening public lecture. Perhaps inevitably, we’ve dubbed the day Speed CHESS.
Here’s the day’s schedule:
9:00-10:00 Bus takes us to St. Peter’s on the Island’s North Shore.
10:00-1:30 Tour the Canadian Centre for Climate Change; hear from Don Jardine on the environmental history of the Greenwich peninsula; & enjoy lunch from Black & White café.
1:30-4:00 Bus takes us to Greenwich Interpretation Centre, PEI National Park, where we get a guided tour from Parks Canada staff; hear from Barbara Rousseau about coastal change; and have a great walk at Greenwich Beach.
4:00-5:00 Bus takes us back to UPEI.
5:30-6:45 Prof. Dagomar Degroot, Georgetown U, author of Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean & host of The Climate Chronicles podcast will give a public talk, “Reflections on Resilience: 20,000 Years of Climate History,” at UPEI’s Murphy Student Centre 110 (McMillan Hall).
There are a few spots available on the field trip (contact amaceach@uwo.ca asap if interested) but the talk is open to all!
Thank you to the day’s sponsors:
· NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment
· The School of Climate Change & Adaptation at UPEI – & in particular Aitazaz Farooque, Associate Dean (Interim)
· The GeoREACH Lab and Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities, at UPEI
· The Faculty of Social Science at Western U.
See you on the Island!
co-hosts Alan MacEachern & Josh MacFadyen
Alan MacEachern
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