Call for papers – The Country and the City: Connecting People and Their Places in Environmental History
Location
Beijing, Renmin University of China
Date
May 29-June 1, 2014
Deadline for proposals
January 01, 2014
An international conference co-sponsored by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, and the Center for Ecological History, Renmin University of China.
Do rural people live in harmony with each other and with nature? Are urban people alienated from the land and exploitative in their ecological behavior? These questions point to cultural myths that have persisted across time and space, from ancient China to modern Africa. This conference seeks to scrutinize such cultural perceptions, in the spirit of famed British cultural critic Raymond Williams, and at the same time examine the material connections that have long bound rural and urban habitats together. We are especially interested in comparative studies that cross national boundaries, in papers that bring neglected parts of the world into view, and in perspectives that extend back in time before the twentieth century.
We seek papers on such topics as the cultural views of nature on the farm and in the city; the production of food and its export to the city; the disposal of urban wastes in the countryside; vectors of disease; the links forged by trade, capital, and the state among the various places, big and small, where people make their living; urban-rural conflicts over the meaning and practice of conservation; “green” cities and “eco villages”; and the city as habitat for nonhuman species.
This conference is open to all ranks and all scholars, from graduate students to senior professors. Paper proposals should be one-page long (or about 300 words) and include a title and a one- or two-page CV. The deadline for consideration is 1 January 2014.
Send proposals in Chinese or English to all of the conference organizers:
- Mingfeng Xia
xiamingfang2@vip.sina.com- Christof Mauch
mauch@lmu.de- Donald Worster
dworster@ku.eduSee the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München for more information
