Climate Histories Interdisciplinary Seminar
Alternate Wednesdays, 14.30-16.30 during term time
CRASSH, Seminar room SG2, Ground floor
Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, CB3 9DT
Conveners
Dr Barbara Bodenhorn (Department of Social Anthropology)
Dr Heather J Cruickshank (Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Engineering)
Dr Hildegard Diemberger (Department of Social Anthropology)
Dr Richard Irvine
(Department of Social Anthropology)
Marcos Pelenur (Centre for Sustainable Development)
The Climate Histories Interdisciplinary Seminar is about bringing together and expanding a network of people from different backgrounds (sciences, arts, humanities, and social sciences, as well as people working in policy, media, and industry) to tackle questions about climate and environmental change in the past, present, and future.
The general questions we ask as a network are: Why does environmental knowledge matter? What can we learn about climate change from history? How can different disciplines work together to develop our understanding? (See our website created for a one-year AHRC network project at http://climatehistories.innerasiaresearch.org/ )
Since its creation in 2010 this network has sought to bring these multiple disciplinary perspectives into rigorous conversation - addressing questions of reliability, evidence, and communicability as these pertain to our understanding of environmental processes over time. Between October 2011 and April 2012, we are hosting a series of seminars in the University of Cambridge funded by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH). Our goal is to bring together early career and established scholars who will offer different perspectives on a range of problems. We hope that in dialogue climate researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds can find new ways of thinking about their research questions, and develop new methodologies for a truly multidisciplinary approach to climate through time. How can scientific knowledge about climate be communicated to and acted upon by society? What can we learn about climate in the past and present from a whole range of sources, including not only scientific data but the sources that are accessed by historians, ethnographers, social researchers, etc.? What kinds of collaborations are required if we are to understand the history of climate both as a process within nature and as a process in which human society is directly involved, with enormous repercussions?
The aim of the seminar series will be to share knowledge, start conversations, and work towards new ways of thinking for future research projects.
Administrative contact: Esther Lamb (Grad/Fac Programme Manager)
