NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment / Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement is a Canadian-based confederation of scholars of environmental history, environmental humanities, and historical geography from both within and beyond Canada. Our mandate is to coordinate networking activities and disseminate the research of those studying the historical relations between people and the rest of nature with a certain emphasis on Canadian history.
Meet Our Executive
Running the network is a team effort. NiCHE is administered by an executive committee who also edit our online content, including blogs, podcasts, videos, and other resources. They are:
Heather Green
Saint Mary’s University
Sean Kheraj
Toronto Metropolitan University
Peter Stevens
Humber College
Book Reviews Editor
Andrew Watson
University of Saskatchewan
Director
Daniel Macfarlane
Western Michigan University
Sara Spike
Dalhousie University
Nuala Caomhanach
New York University | American Museum of Natural History
New Scholars Representative
Shannon Stunden Bower
University of Alberta
Jessica DeWitt
Social Media Editor
Editor-in-Chief, The Otter Blog
Mica Jorgenson
Independent Scholar
Book Reviews Editor
Jessica van Horssen
McMaster University
Blair Stein
Grand Valley State University
Editor-in-Chief, The Otter Blog
Ramya Swayamprakash
Grand Valley State University
Meet Our Editorial Team
Our Executive is supported by an Editorial Team who edit content for our blog, edit and maintain our resource pages, and help develop new NiCHE initiatives.
Caroline C.E. Abbott
Cambridge University
Paul Hackett
University of Saskatchewan
Philip Gooding
McGill University
Mary Baxter
Western University
Jesse Ritner
University of Texas at Austin
Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles
University of British Columbia
Isabelle Gapp
University of Aberdeen
Blake Butler
Know History
Gabrielle McLaren
York University
Nicole Miller
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts/ Uppsala University
Getting involved
NiCHE is first and foremost a community of people who share an interest in nature and the past. Most of our more than 400 members are Canadian, but we have many members from around the world. Most are students or scholars in some fashion, but others are government employees, environmental activists, and members of the general public. Membership is free. If you are interested in joining, please contact us via our user account request page.
Contributing to the website
The NiCHE website is a popular forum for activity and information about nature and the past in Canada. If you want to get a message out about an upcoming event, call for papers, or news item, we welcome submissions. And if you have an opinion about any issue related to nature and the past, The Otter ~ La Loutre also welcomes submissions. A complete guide for contributing to the website can be found in our Submission Guidelines page.
How we got here
NiCHE was founded in fall 2004 by a small team of scholars. Membership jumped quickly in the network’s first years, from 5 to 50 to 200, and activity accelerated apace. In 2007, NiCHE was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Strategic Knowledge Clusters grant which provided the network with stable funding through 2015.
The executive during the Clusters years consisted of Laura Cameron, Queen’s U; Stéphane Castonguay, UQTR; Colin Coates, York U; Matthew Evenden, UBC; director Alan MacEachern, UWO; Liza Piper, U Alberta; Bill Turkel, UWO; and Graeme Wynn, UBC. The executive was supported by an Advisory Board of Stephen Bocking, Trent U; Michèle Dagenais, U Montréal; Philip Enros, Environment Canada; Tina Loo, UBC; Joy Parr, UWO; and Donald Worster, U Kansas.
NiCHE also greatly benefited by the assistance of Maude Flamand-Hubert, French-language editor of The Otter ~ La loutre, 2013-15; Josh MacFadyen, project manager, 2012-14; Jess van Horssen, Qu’est-ce qui se passe editor, 2010-12; Jim Clifford, project manager, 2010-12; Adam Crymble, webmaster, 2008-13; Shawn Day, webmaster, 2007-08; Michael Commito, McMaster U, new scholars rep, 2011-13; Lauren Wheeler, U Alberta, new scholars rep, 2011-12; Will Knight, Carleton U, new scholars rep, 2009-11; Sean Kheraj, new scholars rep, 2008-09; Jennifer Bonnell, new scholars rep, 2007-08; and Daniel Rueck, McGill U, longstanding regional networks rep.
NiCHE thrives today thanks to the commitment and creativity of all these people and the members of the network at large.