Umeå Studies in Science, Technology and Environment (USSTE) – a research group specializing in humanistic and social science research on science, technology and environment, and on the historical relationships between these fields and the rest of society – welcomes applications for a four-year doctoral position at Umeå University, Sweden. [Read more →]

The Faculty of Humanities at Umeå University has announced four two-year postdoctoral positions, to be assigned to the faculty’s strong research areas. Umeå Studies in Science, Technology, and Environment is one of these areas, and we would like to encourage potential candidates with a background in history of science, technology, and/or environment to apply for these positions.

The full announcement can be found here (in Swedish): http://www8.umu.se/umu/aktuellt/arkiv/lediga_tjanster/315-127-11.html

I have also made an English translation of the key points that can be found here: http://finnarne.net/2011/02/24/postdoc-in-history-of-science-technology-andor-environment/

If you don’t understand Swedish, but still would like to apply, do not hesitate to contact Finn Arne Jørgensen at fa@jorgensenweb.net. We welcome international applicants!

Envirotech, a dynamic interest group within the Society for the History of Technology and the American Society for Environmental History, invites nominations for the 2011 Joel A. Tarr Envirotech Article Prize. The Tarr Prize recognizes the best article published in either a journal or article collection on the relationship between technology and the environment in history. The prize committee is particularly seeking innovative publications that explore new ways of thinking about the interplay between technological systems and the natural environment. Articles originally published in any language are welcome, but applicants must provide a translation of non-English articles. To be eligible for the 2011 prize, the article must be published between November 1, 2009, and June 15, 2011.

The Tarr Prize carries a cash award of $250 and will be conferred at the Society for the History of Technology conference in Cleveland, Ohio, November 3-6, 2011.

Send one copy of your article and a brief curriculum vitae (one page Word or PDF files only please) to prize@envirotechweb.org to be considered. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2011.

The Department of Geography

The University of Western Ontario

Physical Geographer ‐ Environmental Change

The Department of Geography at The University of Western Ontario is seeking applications for a probationary (tenure‐track) position for a Physical Geographer with expertise in environmental change at the rank of Assistant Professor commencing July 1 2011. We seek an outstanding individual with demonstrated commitment to excellence in research and teaching. The candidate must have a PhD and a strong record of scholarly activity. Applicants are sought in support of a strategic focus on populated landscapes and human modification of landscapes and processes. The perspective may be temporal or spatial at local to global scales combined with expertise in field, lab or computer techniques.

[Read more →]

Envirotech was busy at SHOT 2010.  On Friday afternoon, at the break, we feted Joel Tarr with cake to celebrate naming our article prize “The Joel A. Tarr Envirotech Article Prize.”   Pictures will be going up on the website.  Also, Steve Cutcliffe and Ann Greene circulated through the book exhibits during breaks carrying copies of The Illusory Boundary and giving out order forms to everyone we could.

Joel Tarr cutting the cake

The Joel A. Tarr Envirotech Article Prize Cake

On Saturday morning, the Envirotech breakfast meeting at SHOT was attended by upwards of 40 people.

1) Funds and Grants

Based on the survey conducted by Dolly Jørgensen, the group voted to move ahead with a travel grant.  Because Envirotech is a SIG of SHOT, this grant will need approval by the Executive Council.  Earliest approval would be in the spring, and it might be possible to offer our first travel grant by the next SHOT meeting (Cleveland, November 2011).   Arne Kaijser, SHOT president, was at the meeting and confirmed that this time schedule was possible.

Steve Cutcliffe with The Illusory Boundary

2) Leadership

There are 8 leadership slots in Envirotech – 2 convenors, and 2 3- person committees (Grants and Essay Prize).

Currently, we need 4 people to step up the plate.

3 people for the grants committee.  (Note: Sara Pritchard is stepping down but will provide all the information you need to get the travel grant in process.)

1 person to take over from Ann Greene as co-convenor.

Ann Greene at the Envirotech breakfast

The Essay Committee for the next round (award to be given at SHOT 2011) is Tim LeCain, Eric Rau, and Heike Weber.  Dolly Jørgensen continues as co-convenor.

People interested in one of these slots should contact Ann Greene or Dolly Jørgensen.
Ann: angreene@sas.upenn.edu
Dolly: dolly@jorgensenweb.net

Envirotech is happy to announce that the Envirotech article prize for 2010 has been awarded to Robert Gardner for his article “Constructing a Technological Forest: Nature, Culture, and Tree-Planting in the Nebraska Sand Hills,” Environmental History 14 (April 2009): 275-297. [Read more →]

Great news – The Illusory Boundary is finally out, a collection of articles edited by Marty Reuss and Steve Cutcliffe and with many envirotechies as contributors. Here is the description from University of Virginia Press.

The Illusory Boundary

[Read more →]

Carl Zimring recently wrote with news of a website that may be of interest to Envirotech readers. Roosevelt University recently launched a blog for our Sustainability Studies program that combines discussion of current events (mostly in Illinois) with historical perspectives on systems to manager water, food, waste, and energy. The link is: http://rusustain.wordpress.com/

The Agricultural History Society Annual Conference Springfield, Illinois, June 15-18, 2011

Deadline for Submissions, October 1, 2010

Contemporary debates about food, agriculture, and rural life are often framed in opposition with little attention to historical context. Proponents of the local, slow, and organic often emphasize quality while advocates of the global, fast, and industrial stress quantity to satisfy world demand for food. The Agricultural History Society invites proposals for papers that engage or transcend these debates by examining questions about quality and quantity as they relate to food, farming, and/or rural life from a historical perspective. We especially welcome submissions that counter or reframe the accepted narratives of the field. Topics from any time period and location are welcome. [Read more →]

Timothy J. LeCain’s Mass Destruction: The Men and Giant Mines That Wired America and Scarred the Planet won the George Perkins Marsh Prize from the ASEH because it is gutsy, eloquently written and narrated, and carefully argued. It is a fine example of “envirotech” scholarship, a sub-field within environmental history concerned with the intersection of technological systems and their inventors, the science that underscores those systems, the environments that comprise or fuel those systems and, more often than not, the landscapes that are utterly destroyed by them. [Read more →]