STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

The European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) is happy to announce
its third annual Summer School. It will take place in St. Petersburg,
Russia, from

August 28 to August 31, 2012,

and it will be hosted by Dr. Julia Lajus (Department of History, National
Research University Higher School of Economics; and Center for
Environmental and Technological History at the European University at St.
Petersburg). The sponsors of the summer school are the European Society of
Environmental History, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and
Society in Munich, and the Estonian Center for Environmental History
(KAJAK).

The theme of the Summer School is

Natural resources: historical ideas, exploration, and exploitation

Doctoral students who are members of the ESEH are welcome to apply. If the
student wishing to attend is not yet a member, an ESEH membership
application should be completed via
http://eseh.org/membership/how-to-become-a-member/ before applying for the
school.

The student's work should address one or several of the following research
questions/themes:

How have societies throughout history reacted to diminishing vital
resources (such as water, wood, land, fossil fuels)?

How have they dealt with food resources (plantations, fisheries etc.)?

How have technologies enabled resource use; and on the flip side, how has
resource availability encouraged technological development?

What role has knowledge played in the exploration of resources and how
have ideas about resources changed over time?

What role have specific natural resources (such as precious metals, water,
hunted animals) played in historic cultural practices or religious ideas?

How have groups come into and/or resolved conflicts over natural resources?

What concepts have been developed to fight resource exploitation?

The summer school will feature lecturers from different countries in a
workshop atmosphere. The program will give doctoral students the
opportunity to discuss their work with peers and mentors.

All participants will be asked to submit a research paper of 15 to 20
double-spaced pages by August 1, 2012. The papers will be pre-circulated
among the summer school participants in order to facilitate discussion of
each student's work.

Please send: (1) a proposal outlining the research paper to be submitted
and where it fits into the larger PhD work in no more than 400 words and
(2) a 2-page CV

to Dr. Dolly Jorgensen, Chair of the Summer School Committee, e-mail
dolly@jorgensenweb.net.

Please note that selected participants will have accommodation, meals, and
workshop participation paid by the ESEH and the Summer School organizers,
however, students must make their own travel arrangements to St.
Petersburg. A limited amount of funding may be available towards the
support of travel. Students are responsible for acquiring their own visas;
the local organizers will provide official invitations.