First ESEH European Summer School in Environmental History

“Events, disasters, narratives and temporalities in environmental history”

June 28- July 2. Musée national de Port Royal des Champs, Yvelines, France

This event is organized by Kindunos (www.histoire-environnementale.com/) and sponsored by Sciences Po – Scientific humanities chair (Bruno Latour), NiCHE, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) and the Ministère de l’Ecologie, de l’Energie, du Développement Durable et de la Mer (MEEDDM) chargé des technologies vertes et des négociations sur le climat. The language of the summer school will be English

      This first ESEH summer school is not focused only on risks and disasters but rather on how to inscribe them within the writing of environmental history. In fact, for historiographical reasons, environmental history was resistant to the study of natural disasters for a long time, looking too anthropocentric and short-term in range for this new field. Historians dealing with risks and disasters came from backgrounds other than environmental ones, such as: critical reassessment of the decline of event in the Annales school; historical anthropology of social and cultural vulnerability; history of science and technology of the XX^th century.

    But, in the last decade, natural disasters history and environmental history have merged for several reasons. Firstly, some environmental historians discovered, in their particular field of inquiry, that disaster could be an important parameter, for example in urban environmental history. Secondly, US environmental history scholars produced more works about disasters and risks, perhaps in relation to the 9/11 attacks and Katrina. Thirdly, natural disasters historians became less concerned with monographic studies and more so with long term analyses, such as comparative perspectives and learning process analyses. Fourthly, the rise of world environmental history promoted a broader view of the study of this field, which included disasters and the collapse of societies. Lastly, the climatic change agenda pushed scholars to focus on extreme events, particularly in the field of climatic history, which used to focus more on structures.

    An integrated approach of events, disasters and longue durée is now essential. New environmental issues are making these frontiers obsolete and need an integrated analysis of the environmental crisis, taking into account the plurality of social times and multiplying environments. And this approach is challenging the established methods of writing both environmental history and natural disasters history. To successfully integrate different scientific communities, it is necessary to proceed with an extensive methodological review of the key concepts used (natural disasters, crash, risks, collapse, environmental crisis). The summer school will make a critical inventory of existing models and will re-examine the total history once proposed by the Annales school. Some case studies in environmental history will be analyzed, in order to define a broad range of temporalities. New issues have to be examined in terms of narratives, scale analysis, ethics, archives and data.

        This summer school will explore all these issues, by incorporating lectures, roundtable discussions and field trips. Roundtable discussions will address a conceptual question and will be centered around a short list of shared reading materials that each participant will have read prior to the meeting. Fields trips will include excursions to the Domaine du Château deVersailles (http://chateauversailles-recherche.fr/), the Domaine du musée de Port-Royal des Champs (http://www.port-royal-des-champs.eu/) and the Parc naturel régional de la vallée de Chevreuse (http://www.parc-naturel-chevreuse.fr/accueil.html). Port-Royal des Champs is a very famous place in French history and we will work just a few meters far from Blaise Pascal'well, in front of the Petites Ecoles where Jean Racine was a scholar, looking to the jansenist's abbeye destroyed by Louis the XIVth. But, less well known, is the environmental interest of this Port Royal estate. From medieval times to the present, from a seigneury to a national park, the environment changed a lot and it's still possible to read all these steps.

         Doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, and more senior scholars are welcome to apply by email, to Gregory Quenet (gregory.quenet@free.fr) BY 15 April 2010. Applications must include a 1 page CV, and a brief statement (about 200 words) indicating how the applicant hopes to benefit from participation in this summer school and what they will contribute to it. Places in the summer school will be allocated after consideration of these statements. Decisions will be communicated to applicants in early April.

Places are limited, both for participation in the Summer School and in the residence rooms reserved for participants. Fifteen places are available for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows. A number of grants covering accommodation will be available, but the rest of the participants will have to cover their expenses (which is €500 for the five days summer school, including fields trips, accommodation, lunch and dinner). There will also be funds available for partial contributions to travel costs for those in need. The amount of these funds and the formula for their distribution are still to be determined, but travel grants will not exceed €600.

Programme

Opening lecture: Bruno Latour (Sciences Po)

 Roundtable discussions:

1/ Historiography  (a - Catastrophism and ecological thought in the humanities / b- The Annales school and temporalities )

2/ Data, archives, documentary bodies (a- Disasters, restoration of archives and reality effects / b- Climatic history and data) 

3/ Forthcoming events and prospective (a- Risk areas and orientalism /  b- Climatic wars) 

4/ Events and process (a- Disasters and the learning process / b- Law and nature, a codification process) 

5/ Disasters, risks and space organization (a- Past disaster and space organization  b/ Risk culture, vulnerability and space)  

6/ Conservation and prevention (a- Environmental restoration and natural parks / b- Industrial risks and temporalities).

Field trips:

1/ Domaine du Château de Versailles and King’s vegetable garden.

2/ Domaine du musée de Port-Royal des Champs 

3/ The explosives factory of Sevran (1875-1969)