CHE News & Announcements
Previous Postings
Week of May 5-May 11, 2008
On Saturday, May 10, the CHE Graduate Students in collaboration with Slow Food UW presented the Spring Place-Based Dinner, a dinner workshop that used food to explore cultural and landscape history. This year's dinner featured local foods, music, and information from the Driftless Area of Southwestern Wisconsin, where this semester's Place-Based Workshop took place.
Week of April 27-May 4, 2008
On Tuesday, April 29th, Richard Keyser, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Research in the Humanities, gave a talk entitled "Common Rights? Conflicts over the Usage of Woodlands in Later Medieval France."
Week of April 21-April 27, 2008
On Wednesday, April 23rd, distinguished environmental historian Carolyn Merchant from the Unviveristy of California, Berkeley, delivered a CHE colloquium on "Gender and Environmental History." In the afternoon, she also gave the Agroecology Spring Lecture on "Partnership with Nature." A small reception followed her talk and she was availabe to meet with students throughout the day. For a printable flyer for the event, click here.
Week of April 7-April 12, 2008
On Wednesday, April 9th, Buddy Huffaker, the executive director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the non-profit organization responsible for managing the Aldo Leopold Shack and its surrounding lands, joined CHE for a talk entitled, “Land, Health, Ethics: Interpreting Aldo Leopold’s Legacy in the 21st Century.”
On Saturday, April 12th, CHE presented the inaugural CHE Graduate Student Symposium. The event included an opening speech from CHE's own Arne Alanen, a full day of graduate student presentations, a keynote speech by University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point professor Greg Summers , and a casual closing reception. For the full schedule, click here. For a printable flyer, click here. We hope to make this successful symposium an annual event.
Week of March 31-April 6, 2008
On Wednesday, April 2nd, Rob Kohler, historian of American science and environment from the University of Pennsylvania presented a History of Science colloquium entitled "A Science of the Whole Environment: Wildlife Ecology."
Week of March 24-March 30, 2008
On Wednesday, March 26th, David Mladenoff of the Department of Forest Ecology and Management joined CHE to launch a discussion on the topic "What can historical information contribute to ecology?" David has been working for years to build an immense database of digitized historical records for Wisconsin ranging from the original land survey to the Bordner Survey maps of the 1930s to make possible quantitative and cartographic analyses of past vegetational change in ways that have never before been possible. To get a sense of his work, you can review his publications , and then peruse other pages on the rest of that website.
On Thursday, March 27th, distinguished anthropologist Benjamin Orlove delivered a Unviversity Lecture entitled "Retreating Glaciers and Advancing Concepts: Considering Adaptation to Climate Change in Highland Peru." On Friday, March 28th, Professor Orlove also delivered a brown bag lecture to CHE in Bradley Memorial.
Week of March 10-March 16, 2008
This week, many members of CHE traveled to Boise, Idaho for the annual Americaan Society for Environmental History (ASEH) conference. For more information on this year's conference, click here.
Throughout the week, Cynthia Mil Duncan, of the University of New Hampshire, presented a series of lecture on the topic "Poverty, Opportunity, and Place." On Tuesday, March 11, her lecture was "Worlds Apart: The Role of Politics, Class, and Culture in Shaping Opportunity in Poor Rural Communities." On Wednesday, March 12, "Place Matters: A Review of Poverty and Development Challenges in Amenity Rich Areas, Declining Resource Dependent Areas and Chronically Poor Regions." And on Thursday, March 13, she delivered a public lecture. This series was sponsored by the Havens Center Visiting Scholars Program and co-sponosred by the UW Institute for Research on Poverty and the Global Studies Program. For more more information or for recording of the talks, visit the Havens Center or download the flyer.
Week of March 3-March 9, 2008
On Wednesday, March 5th, Megan Raby delivered a paper entitled "'Birdskins Are Capital': Western Expansion and the Geography of Nineteenth-Century American Ornithological Collection." This was a practice talk for the American Society for Environmental History Conference in Boise, March 12-16.
On Friday, March 7th, 2008, historical geographer and environmental historian Craig Colten of Louisiana State University gave a special Friday brown-bag lunch for the CHE colloquium with the Geography Deparetment's HERD (Human Environment Research Discussion). His title was "What Historical Geography and Environmental History Can Contribute to Our Understanding of Ecological and Cultural Resilience." In the afternoon, Colten delivered his public lecture for the Geography Department's Yi-Fu Tuan Lecture Series, on "Fighting Yesterday While Facing Tomorrow: New Orleans and Hurricanes." In this talk, he used New Orleans as a concrete case study for thinking about resilience in the face of technological and environmental systems whose rigidities make them vulnerable to extreme events like Hurricane Katrina.
Week of February 25-March 2, 2008
On Wednesday, February 27th, Steve Forman of W. W. Norton & Co. shared his thoughts on publishing with the colloquium, in a talk entitled "A Conversation about Book Publishing for Prospective Authors."
Week of February 11-February 17, 2008
On Wednesday, February 13th, Boston's University Jim McCann , an environmental historian of Africa, visited CHE, providing three opportunities for students and faculty to engage with him. In the morning, he met informally with graduate students and faculty during a drop-in session. At noon, he delivered the CHE colloquium on "Taytu's Feast: Food and Cuisine in Building the Nation." And in the afternoon, Professor McCann delivered his public lecture "Maize Cultivation and Malaria Transmission in Ethiopia: New Evidence and Unintended Consequences for Global Disease." See the flyer for the event here.
Week of January 28-February 3, 2008
On Wednesday, January 30th, Rachel Azima, a CHE graduate affiliate and member of the English department, delivered the semester's first colloquium, entitled, "'Weeds are Us': Weeds, Cosmopolitanism, and Biodiversity."
Week of November 26-December 2, 2007
On Tuesday, November 27th , there was a special meeting for CHE affiliates to discuss the CHE certificate (4 to 5 pm; faculty welcome) and graduate affiliate budget allocation (5 to 6 pm; graduate students only). 202/204 Bradley Memorial.
On Wednesday, November 28th , join us for this semester's final meeting with Buddy Huffaker, Executive Director, and Jennifer Kobylecky, Education Coordinator, of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the non-profit organization responsible for managing the Aldo Leopold Shack and its surrounding lands. “Interpreting Aldo Leopold’s Legacy in the 21st Century.” at 12:00 pm in 202/204 Bradley Memorial. NOTE: This colloquium was cancelled due to Buddy's illness, but will be rescheduled for Spring 2008. Stay tuned!
Week of November 19-November 25, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Week of November 5-November 11, 2007
The environmental film festival of Nov. 2-4, Tales from Planet Earth, was a great success! There were over 3,000 audience members throughout the weekend--and about 1,100 on the opening night alone! Recordings of the introductory talks from the opening night are available online: Introductions and Bill McKibben's talk, Q&A with Bill McKibben
On Wednesday, November 7th , join us for Colloquium Conversation: Lessons Learned from "Tales from Planet Earth," CHE's First Environmental Film Festival at 12:00 pm in 202/204 Bradley Memorial.
Week of October 29-November 4, 2007
On Wednesday, October 24th, join us at 12:00 pm in 202/204 Bradley Memorial for “Where Content Meets Intent: A Conversation about Environmental Film and Advocacy with Judith Helfand and Sarita Siegel”. Filmmakers Judith Helfand and Sarita Siegel will speak about their experience and challenges on the front lines turning visual stories on film into environmental action.
The countdown is on for Tales from Planet Earth, Madison’s first major environmental film festival, brought to you by CHE.
The opening of the festival begins on Friday, Nov. 2, at 6:30 pm at the Orpheum Theatre with a lecture by Bill McKibben on “The Nature of Hope.”
McKibben’s talk will be followed by the Madison premiere of Everything’s Cool at 7:45 pm at the Orpheum Theater.
With 22 films over three days, there is something for everyone. For a complete schedule and program, visit Tales from Planet Earth or check out this week’s Isthmus for a program insert.
Week of October 22-28, 2007
On Wednesday, October 24th, join us at 12:00 pm in 202/204 Bradley Memorial for “Where Content Meets Intent: A Conversation about Environmental Film and Advocacy with Judith Helfand and Sarita Siegel”. Filmmakers Judith Helfand and Sarita Siegel will speak about their experience and challenges on the front lines turning visual stories on film into environmental action.
At 7:30 pm on Wednesday, October 24th in 180 Science Hall, 55 North Park Street, Peggy Shepard, Executive Director and Co-Founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT) will be speaking on “Environmental Justice, Health, and Sustainability: An Urban View” as part of this year’s Gaylord Nelson Lecture Series.
On Thursday, October 25th, join us at noon in 202/204 Bradley Memorial for an informal discussion with Peggy Shepard on her unique experiences as co-founder of WE ACT. Pizza provided!
Week of October 15-21, 2007
On Tuesday, October 16th, please join us for an Opening Reception from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. in Bradley Memorial to welcome the Nelson Institute's Center for Culture, History, and Environment to their home in Bradley Memorial Hospital. We hope you can be there to visit the new facility, get to know those who make up CHE, enjoy some food and drink, and view a visiting water color exhibit titled Nature/Human/Nature by artist Helen Klebesadel.
Week of October 8-14, 2007
On Monday, October 8th, Adam Rome, Associate Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University and former editor of Environmental History, will give a public lecture, “When Earth Day Mattered,” at 4:00 in the Pyle Center auditorium.
Come find out why the first Earth Day, the biggest demonstration in U.S. history, was so powerful and how its history offers lessons to challenges confronting the environmental movement today. Check out the flyer!
On Tuesday, October 9th, Professor Rome will give a special CHE colloquium.
On Thursday, October 11th, CHE is hosting a free showing of Sarita Siegel’s films The Disenchanted Forest and The Beloved at 7 p.m. at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The film showing is free and open to the public.
A guest artist with the Fall 07 UW-Madison Arts Institute Judith Helfand Residency, Sarita Siegel takes audiences deep into the Bornean rainforest to follow the rehabilitation of ex-captive orangutans and contemplate the fluid boundaries between domestic and wild, human and animal, and nature and culture. Don’t miss it!