The latest issue of the journal Environment and History is a co-edited special issue from John Morgan (Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol), and Prof. Sasha Handley (History, University of Manchester). In Environment, Emotion and Early Modernity, the editors bring together a group of seven scholars writing at the intersection of the histories of environment and emotion in the early modern period. The collection covers forestry and geomancy in early modern Korea, foodways and emotional communities in seventeenth-century North America, and much inbetween. Read the collection here. Morg ..read more

by Dr Marianna Dudley (History, University of Bristol), reposted with permission from The Greenhouse. My reason to apply for a Green Transitions Fellowship at University of Stavanger was to make a start on a book about the history of wind energy. I presented my work to the academic community here early on, and spoke about how the history of wind energy has been shaped by interactions between people, place, and technology. The wind moves through these interactions, itself a product of planetary motion, oceanic currents, and the meeting of sea, air, and land. And while it was time in ..read more

On Wednesday 5th October, at 7p.m. Gary Willis (History, University of Bristol) will be presenting a free online talk entitled: ‘Fields Into Factories: Scotland’s Unexplored Second World War‘. His talk will be based on his nearly-completed PhD thesis, which looks at the impact on the British rural and peri-urban landscape of the network of Royal Ordnance Factories and military aircraft factories that were built by the State in the run-up to and during the Second World War.  These military-industrial sites were constructed very rapidly under conditions of national emergency between 1 ..read more

Dr Alice Would (University of Bristol) discusses the temporalities of taxidermy following an encounter with a rotting rat, which is pictured below. In January 2022, I received an email from my former PhD supervisor, the environmental historian Peter Coates, asking what I wanted to do with my attempt at taxidermy. This was a white rat, or rather, ‘now very sorry looking Mr Rat.’ Peter was packing up his office ahead of retirement when he rediscovered the rat’s bodily remains inside a plastic bag. We had taken a taxidermy course together in 2018; I was researching the processes and material ..read more

Dr Richard Stone, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History (University of Bristol), reflects on the recent CEH field trip to the Brecon Beacons. If there was one thing the Centre for Environmental Humanities field trip to the Brecon Beacons in July 2022 brought home to me, it’s how each of us perceives the landscape in a different way, and how in turn our perception is shaped by interaction with each other.  The Dipper which flew up the river alongside the Blaen y Glyn waterfall trail is a perfect example of this.  After 25 years of birdwatching, I took one look at the river valley an ..read more

The Pen and the Plough Amina Khan visits Willowbrook Farm in Oxfordshire to find out more about the UK’s first Halal and Tayib farm and the Radwan family’s approach to sustainable farming. ‘Those who take agriculture seriously enough and study it long enough will come to issues that will have to be recognised as religious’, writes the farmer and writer Wendell Berry in his foreword to Lord Northbourne’s Of the Land and the Spirit. A leading figure in the organic farming movement and a prolific writer on comparative religion, Lord Northbourne coined the term ‘organic farming’ in his book Loo ..read more

The Pen and the Plough This piece by Pen and Plough researcher Dr Pippa Marland is based on her interview with Hywel Morgan (https://thepenandtheplough.wordpress.com/2022/05/17/an-interview-with-nature-friendly-farmer-hywel-morgan-pippa-marland/) and published with his permission. Illustrations by Katie Marland. Above the village of Myddfai, Escairllaethdy Farm stretches over 150 acres. The farm, which lies on the western edge of the Brecon Beacons at the foot of the Black Mountains, has been in Hywel Morgan’s family since his grandfather bought it after the Second World War. It’s an upland ..read more

The Pen and the Plough Photo ©Trevor Rickard(cc-by-sa/2.0) The hearse stopped at the crossroads – two lanes folded like ribbons. It was left or right to either end of the hamlet. The left lane led to the church, now decommissioned, while the right made its way to the family farm. ‘Why has it stopped?’ I asked from the back seat.    There was a brief pause. My mother said: ‘They’re giving him one last look.’ And then the hearse turned left towards the graveyard. *** My grandfather died in the spring of 2018. It was his wish to be buried in the hamlet, despite the church now being vac ..read more

Circulated on behalf of Tobias Skiveren 13 – 14 October 2022 Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark Organisers: Iwona Janicka & Tobias Skiveren The interdisciplinary conference aims to examine various sensations generated by natural environments in an era of climate change. It intends to explore how ecological mutation reconfigures the way we feel, sense, desire and what long term effects these changes have on mental health of individuals and communities. How do we sustain ourselves, mentally and emotionally, when our environments are destroyed? How do we compose more-than-human c ..read more

Next week will see the return of the intercalated BA in Medical Humanities end-of-year celebration to its traditional place at ‘The Space’, PRSC, Jamaica St, Central Bristol.  This year’s theme is ‘Healing the Divide between Medicine & the Humanities’ The exhibition will be open from Wednesday 25th to Thursday 26th May, from 11 am to 4.30 pm. Everyone is welcome to drop in.  Tea and Coffee are available. The exhibition also hosts a panel discussion and talk, which will be of particular interest to CEH members.  This year the panel discussion, supported by medicine360.co.uk ..read more