Summer School 2022 on Environmental History
The RSPH Summer School for research master students will focus on “The Politics of the Environment”. The program will feature national and international guest lecturers, with lectures, roundtables, posters and break-out sessions. Supervisors include prof. Liesbeth van de Grift.
The booming field of environmental studies is inherently multidisciplinary, bringing together ecologists, administrative and legal scholars, political philosophers, IR/IO analysts and historians. Environmental history accolades widely different perspectives, ranging from the history of environmental degradation to new social movements or biographies of conservationists. Thus far political historians have played only a minor role in this expanding field of study as compared with cultural historians, historians of science and technology and global historians. This is striking given that the environment offers a lens to study topics of core concern to political historians, such as democracy, legitimacy and social movements.
In 2021 the Research School of Political History will seek to change this by devoting its inaugural session to the theme of environmental history and by organizing a summer school on the Politics of the Environment. The inaugural session will raise the question of the added value of (political) history to environmental studies. First, it will discuss how environmental studies tie in with core concerns of political historians: democracy, legitimacy, policy-making and interest representation, including those beyond the polity, such as “future generations.” Second, it will explore the tension between environmental activism and academic (historical) studies. The program will feature a keynote speaker and offer ample time for debate.
The RSPH Summer School “The Politics of the Environment” will further build upon this foundation and tease out the various themes of interest to political historians, by asking what new insights may be generated by applying the environment as a lens. Vice versa, we will illuminate the political questions relating to past and current environmental problems that have hitherto remained underexplored. The program will feature national and international guest lecturers, with lectures, roundtables, posters and break-out sessions.
Registration with : bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl
Date Summer school: end of June
3-6 ECTS
For Research Master students, registered with the RSPH