On Monday, April 22nd, NiCHE and the Department of Art History at Aberdeen University hosted a virtual roundtable on the topic of environmental art history. The recording is now available to watch on YouTube. Panelists: Sugata Ray (UC Berkeley) Monica Bravo (Princeton) Robyn Barrow (University of Pennsylvania) Alistair Rider (St. Andrews) Aris Sarafianos (University of Ioannina) Chaired by Isabelle Gapp and Hans Hönes Reconciling the ecocritical turn in art history with a need to more broadly understand the histories, as well as futures, of our global environment, the field of environmental ..read more

This is the fourth post in the Wetland Wednesday series, edited by Gabrielle McLaren The negative cultural connotations of wetlands as unproductive, insalubrious, wastelands took on particular urgency in nineteenth-century France, as state officials worked to create a compelling and cohesive national landscape in the wake of the 1789 Revolution. In contrast to “productive” and “beautiful” agricultural lands, wetlands were what some commentators termed a “national problem” requiring infrastructural intervetions akin to, in novelist Edouard About’s terms, the great cathedrals of the past. By the ..read more

The 2024 David Neufeld Memorial Lecture is now available to watch on YouTube! The 2024 lecture featured a moderated discussion about the Tr’ondëk-Klondike UNESCO World Heritage Site designation with a panel of experts involved throughout the process of drafting, submitting, and successfully securing it’s designation. The conversation touched on the significance of the Tr’ondëk-Klondike site, how the nomination evolved over time, the challenges of creating a UNESCO World Heritage Site submission, and what this designation means for similar sites elsewhere. Panelists included: Al ..read more

Siobhan Angus. Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, March 2024. Purchase the Book In Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography, I tell a history of photography through the minerals upon which the medium depends. Standard narratives of photography emphasize light, which has a number of associations that shape cultural understandings of photography. Light is only part of the story: the chemical interaction of light with light-sensitive minerals makes the photograph possible. Camera Geologica shifts the focus from light ..read more

Candice Allmark-Kent. Literature, Science, and Animal Advocacy in Canada: Practical Zoocriticism. Palgrave Macmillan Cham, November 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40556-3. Access the Book In 1907 the President of the United States of America used his valuable time to write an article criticizing the accuracy of animal behaviours in short stories. President Theodore Roosevelt had joined the renowned American naturalist, John Burroughs, in condemning writers who had been accused of “nature faking.” Between 1903 and 1907, the Nature Fakers controversy was a dispute between writers and n ..read more

Call for Papers Middle Atlantic and New England Council for Canadian Studies Conference in Plymouth, Massachusetts 8-9 November 2024 The Middle Atlantic and New England Council for Canadian Studies (MANECCS) is accepting proposals from all academic disciplines for its 2024 conference to be held at the Hotel 1620 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, November 8-9, 2024.  MANECCS has a long history of exceptional interdisciplinary investigation into Canada and Canada-U.S. relations. Plymouth, “America’s Hometown,” is in southeastern Massachusetts with easy flight connections to Boston and Providence ..read more

Editor’s Note: This is the introductory post in the Relict Landscapes and the Past in the Present series edited by Paul Hackett. You can read other posts in this series here. Figure 1: Photo of Dynevor, 2009. Courtesy Dr. Natalie Ludlow Should you chance to drive about 40 minutes northeast from downtown Winnipeg you might come across a plain, two-storey building of considerable age on the west bank of the Red River, roughly constructed of a type of limestone that is common in southern Manitoba. The building is vacant, and the above photo, taken in 2009 by Dr. Natalie Ludlow (Figure 1), suggest ..read more

This survey is being conducted by the Remote Community Committee and the Sustainability Committee to better understand the ASEH membership’s experiences with, and hopes for, online programming. Many of the questions and the range of answers that we are asking you to choose from reflect preliminary feedback received about online programming and the ASEH. For more information about this survey and ASEH’s online programming initiatives, see ASEH President Nancy Jacobs’ presidential column in our Fall 2023 newsletter. The survey is divided into three parts, each of which consists of required ..read more

The theme for this year’s Environmental Media Lab Grad Scholar in Residence was “extractive media.” During the month-long virtual residence, students benefit from intensive mentorship, networking, publish their work in Heliotrope, and give a public talk. This year’s public talks occurred virtually on March 28th, and the recording of these talks is now available on YouTube. “Greening Extractivism: The Case of Canadian Lithium” – Kailey Walker (Queen’s) “The Christmas Antenna” – Natalia Orrego (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) “Visions for Energy Transition” – Helen A. Hayes (McGill ..read more

74th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers 14-19 August 2024 – Department of Geography, Memorial University Call for Paper and Poster Proposal Submissions Deadline for Abstract Submission: 15 May 2024 Announcement of Final List of Presentations and Special Sessions: 7 June 2024 Deadline for Poster Display Proposals: 30 June 2024 Visit Conference Webpage CALL FOR PAPERS: You can now submit individual paper presentations and register to join us at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers, scheduled from August 14th to 18th, 2024 ..read more