Introduced as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of opportunities to discuss recent research at in-person conferences, the Environmental History Today webinars evolved into a permanent meeting platform for environmental historians from around the world and those interested in the history of human-environment interaction.
The 2025-2027 Environmental History Today webinars aim to demonstrate recent achievements in environmental history in different ESEH regions. ESEH has representatives in 22 regions, and each of them will have the opportunity to talk about recently published books, projects, or studies that reflect the environmental history agenda.
Our webinars take place once a month and bring together scholars, activists and students from different parts of the world. We provide a unique space for developing and exchanging ideas through a transnational network of scholars working on the history of the environment.
The convenors of the webinars are Anna Olenenko, Cosmin Koszor Codrea, and Mehmet Kentel.
Environmental History Today webinars are open to everyone! To participate, you must register for each seminar individually.
The Environmental History Today Webinars (2025-2027)
Host Country: BNL
Date and Time: May 27, 2026, 15:30-17:30 (CET)
Book presentation: Fossil Consumerism: Energy, Ecology and Everyday Life in the Early Modern Low Countries (Leuven University Press, 2026)
Presenter: Dr. Wout Sealens (University of Antwerp)
Chair: Dr. Simone Schleper (Maastricht University)
Abstract: This book explores how the homes of ordinary city dwellers sparked our modern dependence on fossil fuels. Drawing on a rich variety of sources, including probate inventories, household manuals, personal journals, medical treatises and contemporary artwork, it reveals how households in the early modern Low Countries embraced peat and coal to fuel new standards of warmth, light and domesticity. Yet, with these new home comforts came rising indoor pollution, intensified and gendered housework and, ultimately, a quiet shift in humanity’s relationship with nature. Bridging the histories of environments, material culture and consumption, Fossil Consumerism offers a reinterpretation of the historical roots of global warming, finding these not in the industrial mill, but in the intimate, overlooked spaces of the home. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the everyday origins of the Anthropocene.
Zoom link: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/j/69063014580?pwd=rs47F760cJuGjSt13Z4Wc3NAm8TNsb.1
Host Country: Poland
Date and Time: April 30, 2026, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (CET)
Title: Between the Industrialization and the Green Transformation: The Long Environmental History of Polish-Czech Coal in Cultural Perspective
Presenters: Prof. dr hab. Marta Tomczok (University of Silesia), Prof. dr hab. Jan Malura (University of Ostrava), Dr. Jakub Ivanek (University of Ostrava), Dr. hab. Paweł Tomczok (University of Silesia)
Chair: Dr. hab. Anna Barcz (Polish Academy of Science)
Type: Panel
Zoom: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/j/66317440653?pwd=ap2CUxzKbag2aIAaCg66jCPpNHnXEI.1
Abstract: Speakers will discuss two Polish-Czech research projects devoted to the environmental history of coal: “Mapping the Culture of Europe’s Last Coal Basin” (NCN&GACR) and “Images and Histories of Black Towns” (GACR&NCN). These are large-scale team projects aimed at developing a network of connections between two centuries of hard coal mining and the coal industry, and culture. One project resulted in the first environmental map of its kind, the other is a literary and visual anthology.
They will discuss the environmental history of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, the impact of industry and pollution on culture, particularly from the late nineteenth century until the fall of communism. They will also explore how decarbonization and energy transition impact culture, and whether the shift away from coal is reflected in Polish-Czech culture. Two sites that will receive special attention are industrial waste dumps and rivers.
Host Country: Czechia and Slovakia
Date and Time: March 10, 2026, 15:00–17:00 (CET)
Title: From Wild Boar to Household Resource Use: Czech Contemporary Ecological Anthropology
Discussants: Luděk Brož and Petr Jehlička – Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Chair: Doubravka Olšáková, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague
Type: Panel
Zoom: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/j/67225642207?pwd=PAJnx9q9ajHGbdCibXBi3BXn7URTp3.1
Abstract: The BOAR project is an anthropological study of veterinary knowledge and practice beyond animal health, examining how veterinary science increasingly mediates human-wildlife interactions, and serves to structure and govern society through biosecurity measures. More specifically, the project focuses on how recreational hunting communities, self-appointed stewards of wild boar, are becoming key subjects for veterinary interventions.
The RESOURCE project turns the usual logic of reasoning about the use of resources upside down. Instead of investigating the wasteful and destructive forms of consumer life, it aims at frugal practices in Czech and Dutch households. The research focuses on the management of two key household resources: food and water.
Host Country: Russia
Date and Time: 26 February 2026 (Thu), 14:00–16:00 (CET – Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna)
Title: Pollution and sanitizing: Imperial environmental policy, legislation and everyday life
Presenters: Anna Mazanik presents her book, Sanitizing Moscow. Waste, Animals, and Urban Health in Late Imperial Russia (University of Pittsburgh Press, Oct 2025)
Andrei Vinogradov presents his forthcoming book Cleaning the Empire. Industrial pollution and birth of Russia’s environmental policy (CEU Press, Fall 2026)
Organizer and Chair: Anastasia Fedotova (St Petersburg)
Type: Book Presentation (online)
Please register to get the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/qf41S5xPoSEbmhD48
Host Country: Hungary
Date and Time: January 14, 2026; 10-12 am (CET – Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna)
Title: Forests, Alkaline Soil, Hungarian Puszta
Discussants and presenters: Kata Tóth, University of Vienna; Gábor Máté, University of Pécs; Noémi Ujházy, University of Nottingham
Chair: Anna Varga, Czech Academy of Sciences
Type: Panel Discussion (online)
Zoom-Meeting: https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/j/62865822344?pwd=pibMWYCmub9Ivc8dwJVRuHU5EyvdVE.1#success
Host Country: Austria; German-speaking countries
Date and Time: December 10, 2025; 4-6 pm (CET – Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna)
Title: Early Career Scholars in Environmental History: Panel Discussion and Book Presentation
Discussants and presenters: Aske Hennelund Nielson, Charlie Fischer, Daniel Jankowski, Fabian Zimmer, Caterina Schürch, Sarah Hijmans, Wilko Graf von Hardenberg
Chairs: Robert Groß & Katharina Scharf
Type: Panel Discussion and Book Presentation (online)
Zoom-Meeting: https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/65353372842
Meeting-ID: 653 5337 2842
Host Country: Italy
Date and Time: October 14, 2025; 10 am (CET – Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna)
Title: Ambiente e Lavoro. Una lettura incrociata
Discussants and presenters: Gabriella Corona (CNR-ISMed) and Stefano Gallo (CNR-ISMed)
Type: Panel