European Society for Environmental History Conference

From June 30 – July 3, 2015, Julia Lajus, Alexandra Bekasova, Marina Loskutova, Margarita Dadykina, and Elena Kochetkova, researchers from the Department of History and Center of Historical Studies, took part in the 8^th Conference of the European Society for Environmental History. The event took place at University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in France.

The European Society for Environmental History was founded in 1999, with the aim of developing comparative studies and education in environmental history, as well as fostering communication between academics from different countries. The Society’s activities include the organization of biannual international conferences. This year’s conference was entitled ‘Greening History: Studying the Environment Across Disciplines: Past, Present and Future’. The event attracted over 200 researchers from France, Great Britain, Germany, U.S., and other countries. Eighty-nine sections were organized on various aspects of environmental history, with papers including studies on social, economic, technological, political, and cultural history, as well as sociology and natural sciences. The topics included pollution and protection of water resources, the work of researchers and the role of local actors, the problems of environmental protection under totalitarian regimes and wars, and interdisciplinary approaches to environmental history.

Julia Lajus, associate professor at the Department of History, participated in a roundtable discussion on ‘BRICS and environmental history – common challenges and historical narratives’. Alexandra Bekasova, associate professor at the Department, presented a paper on ‘Landscapes of Transportation in Russia, 1820-1850’. Associate professor Marina Loskutova spoke on ‘The 19th century debates on the impact of deforestation in the Russian empire’ at the section ‘Forestry Specialists in the Long 19th century and Their Understanding of Forest Ecology’. Margarita Dadykina spoke on ‘Monks, Management and God’s Mercy: the Russian Monasteries and the Environment of the Russian North in the Early Modern Time’. Elena Kochetkova, senior lecturer at the Department of History, presented her paper ‘Between Pollution and Protection in the Soviet Context: the Soviet Environmental Policy in the mid-1950s - 1960s’.