What is CHE?
The Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is part of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies that draws together faculty, staff, graduate students, and others from a wide array of academic disciplines to investigate environmental and cultural change in the full sweep of human history.
CHE provides a place where a community of scholars from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds can share insights and explore the past and present relationships between humans and the environment.
To read an overview of what CHE is and what CHE associates do, please visit the What is CHE? page.
How can I get involved?
If you are interested in joining our email list, or for more general information about CHE, contact us at che@mailplus.wisc.edu.
Graduate Students
Graduate students can apply to be an associate or to join the certificate program. Learn more on the graduate student affiliation information page.
Prospective Students
Students interested in CHE-related issues should first apply to the UW-Madison department at which they would like to pursue a graduate degree. Please also check our faculty and grad student listings to find potential advisors and get an idea of what kinds of topics people involved with CHE pursue.
Faculty
Faculty members can apply to become a CHE associate. You can learn more about that on the faculty affiliation information page.
Community Members
CHE Colloquium meetings and most other CHE events are open to the public. E-mail us to sign up for the CHE listserv and check the Homepage and Colloquium page to find out when CHE events are being held.
Find out more ways to get involved on the community member information page.
CHE has been made possible through the generous gift of a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.
CHE News, Events, and Highlights: Spring 2012
Announcing CHE's 2012 Place-Based Workshop:
"Vernacular Landscapes of Southwest WI
and Greater Madison"
A sure sign of the end of the semester is when CHE loads up the bus for its annual Place-Based Workshop.
This year we'll be exploring the cultural and built landscapes of southwest Wisconsin and the Madison region with the help of the organizer's of this year's Vernacular Architecture Conference in Madison –CHE's Anna Andrzejewski and Arne Alanen.
Check out "Environment and Media"
CHE Grad Kevin Gibbons has been leading a new class this year called "New Media for Environmental Communication," a special subsection of GEOG/NIES 339, "Environmental Conservation."
In Fall 2011 the class produced nine short films about conservation and sustainable living. You can view the films here.
This semester the class is continuing its exploration with a shared course blog called environment and media – please check it out, add it to your blogroll, and spread the word.
Nathan Jandl, "Over"
New Photo Exhibition in Bradley Memorial by Nathan Jandl
"Presence, Absence, Inhabitation"
CHE is pleased to host a new exhibition of photographs by CHE's own Nathan Jandl beginning in February 2012.
Please join us for a reception to celebrate this new installation on Friday February 10th from 5:30PM - 7:00PM in the Lobby of Bradley Memorial
To see some of the photos that will be featured in this exhibition and more of Nathan's work, please click here
2012
CHE Graduate Student Symposium
Saturday February 18, 2012 – 175 Science Hall
The Fifth Annual CHE Graduate Student Symposium will be held on February 18, 2012, featuring keynote speaker Jo Guldi, a historian at the Harvard Society of Fellows, and kickoff speaker Matt Turner, of the UW-Madison Department of Geography. As usual, the symposium will highlight current graduate student work across the many CHE-affiliated disciplines. We invite students and faculty to attend and participate in a supportive environment of academic collaboration.
For a list of sessions and times,
click here
Photo by William Cronon
CHE Welcomes New Community Associates
This fall CHE launches its new "community associate" membership. This new status recognizes folks engaged with CHE who are neither faculty or graduate students at UW-Madison.
Community associate status is open to anyone in the campus community and beyond whose work and interests similarly address questions relating to culture, history, and environment that define the Center's activities.
Photo by William Cronon
Check out "CHE Health"
CHE is pleased to announce the release of a new mini-site called "Landscapes of Health." Created by participants in CHE's 2011 Place-Based Workshop and students in the methods seminar, this site collects digital short films and eclectic reflections on health and place.
We hope this site will serve as a useful study guide for thinking about human and environmental health as more than the presence or absence of disease – but as part of broader cultural, social, historical, and environmental relationships.
Check out the site here
For "Stories of Health and Place" digital short films, click here
Jess Gilbert elected new director of CHE
CHE faculty associate Jess Gilbert was elected as CHE's new director in May 2011. Jess is a Professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology and the Land Tenure Center, and has been part of CHE since its inception. Jess takes the reigns from Bill Cronon, who served as director from 2008-2011. Congrats Jess!
Check out the CHE Reading Lists
CHE's graduate associates have put together an exciting resource for those interested in studying the environmental past and present.
Using prelim lists from the departments and programs that CHE grads call home, this collection serves as a useful introduction to CHE's interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues.
Be sure to bookmark this page and pass it on.
© 2011 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents