Finding Connection in Speed CHESS 2026: A Reflection

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This is the second of two reflections on our Canadian History of the Environment Summer School (CHESS) 2026 held on Prince Edward Island.

How can you begin to understand the history of a place if you do not first visit the land? This is a question that perhaps most environmental historians would resonate with. As a PhD Candidate specializing in environmental history, I often find myself longing to explore conference locations beyond campus walls and downtown settings. My trip to Prince Edward Island was no different, and with the help of Speed CHESS 2026, this was a wish made possible.

I’ve travelled to all the Atlantic provinces before, but PEI is one that I do not frequently visit—you’ll usually find me in Newfoundland & Labrador or Nova Scotia. When I received the news that I would be venturing off to Charlottetown for the 2026 Canadian Historical Association Conference (CHA) and Atlantic Canada Studies (ACS), Speed CHESS was immediately added to my itinerary. As I arrived in 5-degree rainy Charlottetown from 25-degree sunny Toronto, I was immediately greeted by my favourite smell of salt water in the Atlantic. Looking back on my taxi ride to campus, it was a sweet anecdote of what CHESS would come to resemble for me: my driver was not familiar with the upcoming conferences of the week, but he could recommend to me an essential seafood location for every spot on the island, and that was equally important. I spent my first day in town prepping for the incoming tours of St. Peter’s and Greenwich Beach, both of which would be first-time visits for me. I found myself once again appreciating the role that both NiCHE and environmental history play in shaping my understanding of a place: would I have really begun to feel the history present withinPEI if I hadn’t seen it in all its natural wonder?

On the morning of the 31st, we ventured off to our first location: the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation, located in St. Peter’s. Perhaps my favourite detail of the Centre was their community garden, a feature designed to promote community education on sustainability, food preservation, and “climate-resilient” gardening. If you ever make the trip, you’ll also want to browse the various art exhibits that bring awareness to growing evidence of climate change in the region.

One of the art displays at the Canadian Centre for Climate Change.
One of the art displays at the Canadian Centre for Climate Change. Author’s photo. 

Of course, CHESS would not be CHESS if we failed to venture outdoors, and so the afternoon was spent at Greenwich Beach. This may have been the highlight of the trip: something is haunting about the location (although this may have been partially due to the floating boardwalk, where I think we all became quickly aware of our own vulnerability). Being surrounded by the ongoing livelihood of several historical conferences, there was a moment of quiet in Greenwich. Of stillness. A reminder that as humanity engages with what we deem as important, the environment quietly carries on as it always has. CHA will end, and so will CHESS, but the parabolic sand dunes and ocean tides of Greenwich Beach will outlive us all. If nothing else, the scene was a moment of tranquillity and reflection.

Hike to Greenwich Beach
Hike to Greenwich Beach
Hike to Greenwich Beach

Photographs of the hike to Greenwich Beach. Author’s photos.

The evening public talk only furthered this reflection: Dagomar Degroot’s “Reflections on Resilience: 20,000 Years of Climate History” stressed the importance of emotionality, resilience, and community in climate history and climate change discourse.

I now feel well-versed in my knowledge of PEI: even more so than my previous visits, due to our interaction with its environment. If you want to intimately know the island, some of the best ways to do so are by visiting locations such as the Centre for Climate Change and Greenwich Beach, in addition to popular tourist spots.

“For graduate students looking to not only build connections but also to find community and meaning, CHESS will always be for you.”

This is my second time attending CHESS. Just like last year, I came away feeling more grounded in my understanding of environmental history, as well as in how I view academic travel and the essentialness of infusing environment into both. For graduate students looking to not only build connections but also to find community and meaning, CHESS will always be for you.

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Sarah Perry

Co-Founder at Written in the Waves
Sarah is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at McMaster University. Her doctoral research examines how environment, race, and cultural identity shaped Newfoundland’s mining communities in late-19th to early-20th-century Canada. She is a student researcher on the SSHRC-funded Mining Danger Project. Sarah is also the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Written in the Waves, an online graduate student journal dedicated to women's research on the history, anthropology, and folklore of the Atlantic world.

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