Israeli Forum for Environmental History

Environmental history is an emerging field in Israel. The Israeli Forum for Environmental History (IFEH) was founded on July 2013. The Forum includes over 100 scholars from 5 universities and other academic institutes. IFEH brings together young and senior researchers from different disciplines such as Middle Eastern history, European history, legal history, historical geography, architecture and more. By conducting interdisciplinary discussions on environmental issues in different historical periods and places, we hope to enrich our research, challenge our way of thought and create new collaborations. By doing so, we aim to create an academic community in Israel for environmental historians. IFEH is hosted by the Porter School of Environmental Studies and Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies at Tel Aviv University.

IFEH organizing committee

Dr. Yaron J. Balslev, Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel Aviv University (yaronbal@post.tau.ac.il)

Prof. Miri Shefer-Mossensohn, Faculty of Humanities, Head of the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University (shefer@post.tau.ac.il)

Dr. David Schorr, Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University (dschorr@tau.ac.il)

 

IFEH coordinator

Omri Elad, School of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University (omrielad100@gmail.com)

 

Leaflets

IFEH English leaflet
IFEH Hebrew leaflet

*Print as A5 document
*To join the sessions or our email list, please contact envihistoryforum@gmail.com

 

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Current Activities

 

CfP: Israeli Sixth Annual Conference For Environmental History
The Israeli Forum for Environmental History is inviting researchers to submit proposals for the Sixth Annual Conference in Environmental History. The conference will take place on February 10th, 2020, in the Porter School of Environment and Earth Studies at Tel Aviv University. The theme for 2020 conference is “Wild.”

Dead line for paper/Session submitions: 11.11.19

 

For more details, please see:

IFEH 2019 Call for Papers

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Past Activities

 

Table of contents

1. Academic year 2018-2019
2. Academic year 2017-2018
3. Academic year 2016-2017
4. Academic year 2015-2016
5. Academic year 2014-2015
6. Academic year 2013-2014

 

Academic year 2018-2019

 

Fifth annual conference on environmental history in Israel
21 January 2019, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University

Conference program (English/Hebrew): 5th Annual Israeli Conference on EH, 21.1.2019
Call for papers (English): CfP_The Israeli Forum for Environmental History, 21-1-19
Call for Papers (Hebrew): CFP Annual conference on environmental history in Israel, 21.1.2019
Deadline for abstract submission: Expired (11 November 2018)
Language of the conference: English/Hebrew
Conference Committee 2019: Omer Aloni, Yaron Balslev, Dafna Langgut, Nurit Kirsh, David Schorr, Miri Shefer-Mossensohn, and Dan Tamir

 

Prize for the best EH article 2019

CFP: CFP: Best article prize 2019
Deadline for submitting an article: Expired (1 September 2018)
Language of the article: English/Hebrew
Eligibility for the prize: Israeli scholars
Prise Committee 2017: Tal Alon Mozes, Rakefet Sela Sheffi, Noa Efron

 

Monthly Sessions

*All sessions take place at Tel Aviv University, Thursdays 4-6 pm
**All sessions take place in Hebrew

1 November 2018
The Landfill of Tel-Aviv in 1938: a micro history of Mandatory Palestine (Dr. Yaron Balslev, Tel Aviv University)

11 December 2018
The Impact of Environmental Pollution on Ethnic Unrest in Xinjiang: A Uyghur Perspective (Dr. Nimrod Baranovitch, Haifa University)

3 January 2019
Mushāʿ in the Levant: from discussion on land redistribution to discussion of land use by societies (Dr. Amos Nadan, Tel Aviv University)

Workshop on the environmental history of capitalism:
CFP to the workshop (deadline 30 November 2018): CFP workshop 2019 (Hebrew)
3 March 2019
4 April 2019
16 May 2019
13 June 2019

End of the year excursion: Ashkelon National Park
Ancient Ashkelon an a historical water park (Dr. Avi Sasson, Ashkelon Academic College, and Dr. Eyal Mitrani, National Park Authority)

 

Academic year 2017-2018

 

2 November 2017
How did a mountainous agrarian society exist without terraces? The beginning of terrace development in the mountains of Jerusalem (Dr. Yuval Gadot, Tel Aviv University)

7 December 2017
The development of environmental-climatic planning in ancient Greece and Rome and its influence on the Land of Israel: from theory to practice (Prof. Oded Potchter, Beit Berl Academic College and Tel Aviv University)
The coping of Mameluke society and regime in Bilad al-Sham with harsh climate conditions (Prof. Yehoshua Frenkel, Haifa University)

31 January 2018
Mid-year Excursion: Settlement, water, and space in ever changing geopolitical conditions in Baqa al-Gharbiyye area (Mr. Roy Marom and Dr. Orli Sela)

8 March 2018
Underground forests: landscape, imagination and science in industrial Britain (Ms. Naomi Yuval Nae, Hebrew University in Jerusalem)

3 May 2018
Animals as an economic concept in the Age of Enlightenment (Dr. Natan Wolloch, Tel Aviv University)
Planet of the Apes: How and why did the legal status of apes change during the 20th Century (Dr. Shira Shemueli, Tel Aviv University)

7 June 2018
The jug and the girl: water ownership rights during the early days of Zionist settlement (Dr. Orli Sela, Tel Aviv University)

14 June 2018
End of year excursion: Sources of the Yarkon River National Park and the Jerusalem water plant (Dr. Assaf Selzer, Haifa University, and Dr. Eyal Mitrani, National Parks Authority)

 

 

Academic year 2016-2017

 

3 November 2016
Between theology and science: Arab-Persian knowledge on the natural world in Imperial China (Dr. Dror Weil, Tel Aviv University)

1 December 2016
Nature-Park-City: Environmental and planning histories of the Yarkon Park in the 20th Century (Dr. Shirili Gilad, Technion)

5 January 2017
Technology acclimatizing in the Nature: Visual images of trains, rail roads and train stations as natural phenomena in 19th Century Germany (Dr. Zef Segal, Hebrew University in Jerusalem/The Open University)

6 April 2017
The Department of Landscape Improvement and the Nature and Parks Authority as landscape and cultural designers in Israel (Dr. Eyal Mitrani, Israel Nature and Parks Authority)

11 May 2017
Technology and environmental history: GIS* applications as a tool for past landscapes reconstruction from historical maps (Prof. Noam Levin, Hebrew University in Jerusalem)
*GIS – Geographic Information Systems

22 June 2017
The great orchard of Jaffa and well-houses* in the modern era (Dr. Avi Sason, Ashkelon Academic College)
*Well-houses – Biara in Arabic

22 June 2017
Field trip: Abu Kabir and its environments, between urban and agricultural landscape (Dr. Avi Sason, Ashkelon Academic College)

 

Fourth annual conference on environmental history in Israel: October 2017

Conference program (English/Hebrew): 4th Annual Israeli Conference on Envi. History__Program
Call for papers (English): CFP- Israeli Conference on Environmental History 2017
Call for Papers (Hebrew): Hebrew CFP- Israeli Conference on Environmental History 2017
Deadline for abstract submission: Expired (2 April 2017)
Language of the conference: English/Hebrew
Conference Committee 2017: Maya Duany (Tel-Hay College), David Schorr (Tel Aviv University), Dan Tamir (Ben Gurion University), Nurit Kirsh (Open University), Avivit Agam-Dali.

 

Prize for the best EH article

CFP: Prize for the best EH article 2017 – Hebrew
Deadline for submitting an article: Expired (1 September 2017)
Language of the article: English/Hebrew
Eligibility for the prize: Israeli scholars
Prise Committee 2017: Miri Shefer-Mossensohn, Haim Goren, Alon Tal

 

 

Academic year 2015-2016

 

5 November 2015
Wood and ancient shipbuilding—Dendroarchaeology of sunken ships and dendrohistory of the galea kadirga in Istanbul (Prof. Nili Liphschitz, Tel Aviv University)

3 December 2015
The human as a force of nature: The shaping of landscape by past human activity – key points in the Paleo-Anthropocene in Israel (Dr. Oren Ackermann, Ashkelon College and Bar-Ilan University)

7 January 2016
The Zionist-botany connection: Otto Warburg in Palestine, 1900-1930 (Ms. Dana von Suffrin, LMU, Munich)
Comment: Dr. Ran Aharonson (Hebrew University in Jerusalem)
*Session in English

3 March 2016
“Bad Water”: Environmental contexts of accusations of well poisonings in 14th-century Europe (Mr. Tzafrir Barzilay, Columbia University, New-York)

7 April 2016
Back to the League of Nations: A reappraisal of the environmental regime: 1919-1946 (Mr. Omer Aloni, Tel Aviv University)

5 May 2016
How the landscape in Israel changed from nature to culture in the last half century (Prof. Tal Alon-Mozes, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology)

2 June 2016
An end-of-year tour: Environmental history in Tel Aviv-Jaffa (Mr. Yaron Balslev, Tel Aviv University)

 

Third annual conference on environmental history in Israel: October 2016
The Third annual conference was held in Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem, on October 27th 2016.
The conference included 5 sessions of 11 presentations, and a panel on natural museums, natural collections and environmental education.

Conference program (Hebrew): Israeli conference of environmental history 2016
Conference Committee 2016: Yaron Balslev (Tel Aviv University), Eran Feitelson (Hebrew University in Jerusalem), Galia Hasharoni (Haifa University), Rakefet Sela-Sheffy (Tel Aviv University), Assaf Selzer (Haifa University).

 

 

Academic year 2014-2015

 

3 November 2014
Von Mülinen and Mount Carmel in 1908 (Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi)

11 December 2014
The Transfer and Structuring of the Holy Land in Germany (Prof. Haim Goren)

19 January 2015
Lake Huleh as an Site for Environmental History Research (Dr. Maya Duany)

26 March 2015
Local Nature Conservation Initiatives in Israel’s Pre- and Early Statehood Period (Prof. Rakefet Sela-Sheffy and Mr. Roi Marom)

5 May 2015
Animals and Emotions in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire (Mr. Ido Ben Ami)

18 June 2015
Urban Nature – The Relationship between Nature and City in Modern Western Thought (Ms. Galit Samuel)

 

Second annual conference on environmental history in Israel: October 2015
The Second annual conference was held in Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem, on October 8th 2015.
The conference included 5 sessions of 12 presentations.

Conference program (Hebrew): Israeli conference of environmental history 2015
Conference Committee 2015: Dan Tamir (Arava Institute), Assaf Selzer (Haifa University), Tal Alon-Moses (Technion), Tamar Novik (Tel Aviv University).

 

 

Academic year 2013-2014

 

30 October 2013
“What is environmental history?” (Dr. Miri Shefer-Mossensohn)

20 November 2013
Species introductions and animal history in Israel (Dr. Dan Tamir and Ms. Tamar Novick)

18 December 2013
Climate change in the Middle East during the 11th-12th centuries (Prof. Roni Ellenblum)

15 January 2014
Urban environmental history under the British mandate of Palestine (Mr. Yaron Balslev)

26 March 2014
Law and environmental history (Dr. David Schorr)

23 April 2014
Spatial carrying capacity (Prof. Alon Tal)

21 May 2014
Muslim and Ottoman urban environment (Dr. Miri Shefer-Mossensohn)

 

First annual conference on environmental history in Israel: October 2014
The first annual conference on environmental history in Israel was held in Jerusalem on October 21st 2014.
The conference included 7 sessions of 24 presentations, and a panel on environmental history research in Israel.

Conference program (Hebrew): Israeli conference of environmental history 2014
Conference Committee 2015: Yaron Balslev (Tel Aviv University), Maya Duany (Yad Ben Zvi), Assaf Selzer (Haifa University), Dan Tamir (Arava Institute), Miri Shefer-Mossenshon (Tel Aviv University), David Schorr (Tel Aviv University).

 

• ESEH Call for Nominations