ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES MONTH BLOG

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

we kindly invite you to the next Helsinki University Environmental Humanities Forum
on February 19 (Tuesday) at 14.15-15.45
when Veronica Walker Vadillo, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki will present

“The birth of riverine cultural traditions in the Mekong River during the Angkor era ”

at Metsätalo, sali A113 (Unioninkatu 40)

Please kindly see Abstract and short Bio of Speaker below.

Looking forward to meeting/seeing you soon!

Twitter @helsinkienvhum

Facebook @helsinkienvhum

Blog: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/environment

With kind wishes, Viktor Pál and Mikko Saikku

Abstract

Since the discovery of the Angkor civilization on the shorelines of the Tonle Sap Lake, it has been assumed that rivers played an important role in the establishment of this polity. Despite this acknowledgement, most of the research conducted in Angkor so far has focused on the perception that Angkor was an agrarian state, a position that has obscured the Angkor’s complex cultural responses to its watery environment. In this presentation I seek to tease out the main characteristics of said responses by analyzing the extensive corpus of nautical iconography in the context of human-environment interactions in aquatic spaces. These representations are unique in archaeology inasmuch as they present a wealth of information of activities that took place on board vessels, from pilgrimages to sacred places, to warfare, festivals, and elaborated rituals performed on water (both in man-made and natural spaces). Additionally, they show that the people of Angkor tapped into Indian iconography to modify their vessels, creating an eclectic tradition that survives, albeit modified, in the royal barges parades of Thailand. I hope to demonstrate that the represented nautical scenes point to political and cosmological responses to the cyclical amphibian landscape they inhabited, and provided the kings of Angkor with a religious framework with which they exerted control over the river network and the people living in and around it. The study applies the interdisciplinary theoretical framework known as the Maritime Cultural Landscape, incorporating data from environmental sciences, archaeology, nautical technology, ethnography, and history.

Bio

Veronica Walker Vadillo is a maritime archaeologist specialized in Southeast Asia working as a postdoc at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced studies. She recently obtained her doctorate from the University of Oxford, for which she focused on Angkor’s riverine cultural landscape. The thesis analyzed the different ways in which the people of Angkor adapted to their environment in terms of practical usage (i.e., landscapes of communication and transport) and in terms of mind-set (i.e., cosmology and ritual behavior). For her current position she is analyzing data she obtained during her doctoral studies to determine the role of nomadic fishing communities –present in the Mekong River until the early 20th century– in state development during the Angkor era. Her main interests are maritime ecosystems and trade pulses, that is, the rhythm at which maritime trade happens, in the Southeast Asian branch of the Maritime Silk Road. She actively participates in academic forums like the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage (APConf) and the International Congress on Underwater Archaeology (IKUWA), and was invited as an expert to the first UNESCO meeting to nominate the Maritime Silk Road as World Heritage.

Helsinki Environmental Humanities Forum continues to introduce our associated members’ 2018 Koneen Säätiö – Kone Foundation #boldmaker projects:
The second project to introduce is led by Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS) Core Fellow Rani-Henrik Andersson

https://www.facebook.com/ranihenrik.andersson

and carried out by members of his #HUMANA research group.

The research group’s project: “Siirtolaisuus ja verkostoanalyysi: Uusia tutkimusmenetelmiä siirtolaisuuden ja yhteiskunnallisen muutoksen tutkimukseen ” its mainly not an #envhum topic, but its connected to various envhum isses and definitely worth to checking out!

–

FT, DOSENTTI RANI-HENRIK ANDERSSON JA TYÖRYHMÄ (HUMANA) 311 700 €
Siirtolaisuus ja verkostoanalyysi: Uusia tutkimusmenetelmiä siirtolaisuuden ja yhteiskunnallisen muutoksen tutkimukseen (HUMANA)
Tieteellinen tutkimus / siihen pohjautuva työ | Kolmivuotinen

Ihmisten liikkuvuuden ymmärtäminen on ajassamme ensiarvoisen tärkeää. Ilman siirtolaisuuden tutkimusta on mahdotonta ymmärtää menneisyyttä tai nykyisyyttä. 2000-luvun globaalissa ja verkottuneessa maailmassa se on entistäkin tärkeämpää. Liikkuessaan paikasta toiseen ihmiset tuovat mukanaan ajatuksia, uskomuksia ja arvoja, jotka vaikuttavat heidän uusiin yhteisöihinsä. Samalla pois muuttavat ihmiset jättävät jonkinlaisen tyhjiön entisiin yhteisöihinsä. Muuttoliikettä on tutkittu käyttäen perinteisiä historian, sosiologian, antropologian ja tilastotieteen menetelmiä. Nämä tutkimukset ovat rikastaneet omia tutkimusalojaan ja muita aloja, kuten taloustiedettä ja politiikantutkimusta. Tutkimusryhmämme HUMANA uskoo, että verkostoanalyysi voi tuoda paljon lisää ymmärrystä siihen, miten tutkimme, tulkitsemme ja ymmärrämme siirtolaisuutta. Projektimme tutkii suomalaista siirtolaisuutta 1900-luvun alun Yhdysvaltoihin. Aineisto koostuu aidosta väestölaskentamateriaalista ja kirkonkirjoista sekä lähtö- että kohdemaassa, mikä auttaa meitä luomaan paikoista sekä poliittisista, koulutuksellisista, uskonnollisista ja perhesuhteista verkostomallin, joka tarjoaa yksityiskohtaista, todellista tietoa useasta sukupolvesta. Samalla kehitämme menetelmää luomalla käytäntöjä ja työkaluja verkostoanalyysin tuomiseksi laajempaan humanistiseen käyttöön tutkijoille, joilla ei ole ohjelmointitaitoja.

HUMANA kehittää menetelmää, jolla siirtolaisuutta ja sen aiheuttamia yhteiskunnallisia muutoksia voidaan tutkia mullistavalla tavalla. Toisin kuin perinteinen historiantutkimus, HUMANA luo dynaamista v

INVITATION

Indigenous Studies Guest lecture

Prof. Andrew Wiget (Moscow State University):

THE KHANTY OF SIBERIA AND CIRCUMPOLAR BEAR CEREMONIALISM

Friday January 18th, 2019 at 16–18 o’clock.
Lecture room 6, Metsätalo (Unioninkatu 40), 3rd fl.

Throughout the forested zones of the northern hemisphere, the relationship between bears and humans is at the core of what are arguably some of the oldest forms of cultural activity. The Bear is the principal other-than-human person, sometimes an ancestor, always the Master of the Forest with a leading role in managing life in the taiga. This lecture explores the impact of twentieth century changes on the Khanty and Mansi peoples of western Siberia, for whom the ritual killing of a designated Bear, who is understood to offer himself to men for just this purpose, is followed by an elaborate ‘sending home’ ceremony. In this bear ceremony, the bear as the honored guest is celebrated for one or more days with songs, dances, folk drama, before being sent back to his sky-home.

PROF. ANDREW WIGET is professor in the Ethnology Faculty of Moscow State University and Emeritus Professor at New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, USA). With his wife and colleague, Dr. Olga Balalaeva, he has been working among the Khanty of Western Siberia since 1992. In addition to many scholarly articles, they have published a book-length ethnography, Khanty: People of the Taiga (University of Alaska Press, 2011).

Welcome!

Contact: Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Indigenous Studies, pirjo.virtanen@helsinki.fi.

*****

Buorre ođđajagi!
Happy New Year!

INVITATION
Indigenous Studies Guest lecture
Prof. Andrew Wiget (Moscow State University):
THE KHANTY OF SIBERIA AND CIRCUMPOLAR BEAR CEREMONIALISM
Friday January 18th, 2019 at 16–18 o’clock.
Lecture room 6, Metsätalo (Unioninkatu 40), 3rd fl.
Throughout the forested zones of the northern hemisphere, the relationship between bears and humans is at the core of what are arguably some of the oldest forms of cultural activity. The Bear is the principal other-than-human person, sometimes an ancestor, always the Master of the Forest with a leading role in managing life in the taiga. This lecture explores the impact of twentieth century changes on the Khanty and Mansi peoples of western Siberia, for whom the ritual killing of a designated Bear, who is understood to offer himself to men for just this purpose, is followed by an elaborate ‘sending home’ ceremony. In this bear ceremony, the bear as the honored guest is celebrated for one or more days with songs, dances, folk drama, before being sent back to his sky-home.
PROF. ANDREW WIGET is professor in the Ethnology Faculty of Moscow State University and Emeritus Professor at New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, USA). With his wife and colleague, Dr. Olga Balalaeva, he has been working among the Khanty of Western Siberia since 1992. In addition to many scholarly articles, they have published a book-length ethnography, Khanty: People of the Taiga (University of Alaska Press, 2011).
Welcome!
Contact: Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen, Indigenous Studies, pirjo.virtanen@helsinki.fi.
*****
Buorre ođđajagi!
Happy New Year!

INVITATION

Dear Colleagues,

we kindly invite you to an event associated with

the Helsinki Environmental Humanities Forum

(Monday) January 7, 2019, at 14.15- 15.45

In Aleksandria (Fabianinkatu 28)

Group study Room 329

Program

Doctoral Candidate Christina Baxter from Department of History, Mississippi State University, USA

will present and discuss her PhD project:

“Kukurzshchik’s Debacle: Khrushchev’s Push for Corn as a Means of Sovereignty”

“We will fire the most powerful torpedo against the foundations of capitalism.” This was

Khrushchev’s hope and promise for the Soviet Union. Through the increased production of

foodstuffs, he believed that not only would the Soviet Union become self-sufficient but that it

could outproduce the West at a rate that could cause the collapse of capitalism. Paramount to

Khrushchev’s plan was grain production with corn as the epitome as the singular means of

survival. The Soviet leader became so enthralled with the North American grain that he gained

the nickname “Kukurzshchik.” The colossal project ended up becoming a complete failure for

both the Soviet leader and the Soviet Union. The failure was expansive enough to reverse

Khrushchev’s dreams by turning the Soviet Union from exporter to importer for grains.

By combining cultural and environmental history approaches to the topic, this project

seeks to answer the following questions: How does the Soviet behemoth take a foreign food

staple and make it “Soviet?” What were the impacts of the Soviet experiment with corn? How

does a “Soviet grain” turn into a a symbol for destruction? The project utilizes popular cartoons,

Khrushchev’s memoirs, as well as government documents to understand the rise and fall of the

Soviet project with corn. After analyzing the materials, this project finds that the Soviet regime

pushed for the Sovietization of the North American grain as a means to define sovereignty and

this image only changes to become synonymous once the monstrous failure becomes known to

the larger public. Ultimately, the failure of Khrushchev’s push for corn caused the populous to

never regain its faith nor belief in the Soviet colossus.

KINDLY NOTE: The talk and subsequent discussion are going to BROADCAST LIVE via Twitter @helsinkienvhum)

Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

Helsinki Environmental Humanities Forum would like to wish you Happy Holidays with our new Environmental Humanities Forum Video Archive that includes some of the most interesting talks by distinguished guests from North America and Europe on a variety of subjects ranging from recycling via indigenous peoples to Chernobyl.

The holiday season and long Nordic winter nights create a wonderful setting for watching our videos which present independent, stimulating and unique envhum research. 🙂

Video Library Link:
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/environment/video-archive-helsinki-envhum-forum/

Wishing you Happy Holidays! Hyvää Joulua!

Helsinki Envhum Forum’s team:
Mikko Saikku, Viktor Pál, and Justin Begley, Dorotheé Cambou, Parker Krieg, Laura Siragusa, Stef Spronck, Inna Sukhenko.

December 11, 12.15-13.45
Kielikeskus (Language Center)
Fabianinkatu 26, Seminar Room 203

PROFESSOR SCOTT SLOVIC
editor of ISLE journal, a renowned ecocritic from the University of Idaho.
“Toward an Empirical Environmental Humanities: What Counts as Data?”

https://flamma.helsinki.fi/portal/home/fh?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=flamma_portal_page_events

AND

December 11,2018.
14.15-15.45
Kielikeskus (Language Center),
Fabianinkatu 26, Seminar Room 403

PROFESSOR FINN ARNE JØRGENSEN, University of Stavanger and MIT PRESS author
IS RECYCLING GARBAGE? EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIONS THROUGH DISCARD STUDIES

The green aura that has surrounded the term “recycling” since the 1970s is fading away. Long hailed as an environmentally beneficial practice that both consumers and businesses could engage with, recycling has come under considerable pressure from a wide range of critics.

Few disagree that the general idea of recycling is good. What recycling aims to do is to close the loop, redirecting streams of matter into something circular that ideally never reaches the waste stage. The implication is that a society that is sufficiently efficient at recycling is a sustainable society. Yet, critics argue that recycling is far from a panacea – it is either insufficient, misleading, busywork, or a green illusion, depending on who you ask. The global consequences of recycling are becoming increasingly evident – especially in their uneven distribution.

This talk uses the emerging research field of Discard Studies as a way into this shifting idea of recycling. It will situate recycling as an activity and a process at the intersection of the material and the ideological, and in doing so, it will take us into complex territories, full of both contested symbols and unruly materiality, laden with cynicism and hope, anchored in economy and ecology.

Finn Arne Jørgensen is Professor of Environmental History at University of Stavanger, Norway. He directs the environmental humanities initiative The Greenhouse together with Dolly Jørgensen. He is the author of Making a Green Machine: The Infrastructure of Beverage Container Recycling (Rutgers University Press, 2011) and co-editor of New Natures: Joining Environmental History with Science and Technology Studies (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013). This talk is based on Recycling: Essential Knowledge, which will be published with MIT Press in fall 2019.

https://helsinginyliopisto.etapahtuma.fi/Default.aspx?tabid=960&q=&_ga=2.252880655.728718349.1543571634-2019045449.1531911161#.XAJZ8WgzbIU

INVITATION

Dear Colleagues,

we kindly invite you to the next Helsinki University Environmental Humanities Forum on
(Tuesday) November 13, 2018, at 14.00-16.00
at the Language Center (Fabianinkatu 26) Seminar Room 403

when Dr Inna Sukhenko, International Postdoctoral Fellow from the Helsinki University Humanities Programme
will give a talk on “Nuclear Criticism: Before and After Chernobyl”

Please kindly see Inna’s discussion paper and a related scholarly article attached to be discussed at the forum.

(KINDLY NOTE: The talk and subsequent discussion is going to be LIVE on Twitter @helsinkienvhum)

“”

Inna Sukhenko is a postdoctoral researcher of Helsinki University Humanities Program, the University of Helsinki. She defended her doctoral dissertation at Dnipo National University (Ukraine). Her current research interests are focused on environmental humanities, energy humanities, ecocriticism, literary energy narratives, nuclear narrative studies. Her special interest lies with “Chernobyl narrative” within ecocritical studies and energy humanities. She contributed to the international projects on ecocriticism and environmental literature studies. She is a member of the Association for Literary Urban Studies (Finland), HELSUS (Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Sciences, Finland), the Finnish Society for Development Research (Finland), Chornobyl Ecological Information Center (Ukraine).

Please kindly follow the link below to learn more about Inna’s work:
https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/portal/en/person/sukhenko

Looking forward to seeing (meeting) you!
With kind wishes, Viktor Pál and Mikko Saikku

INVITATION

Dear Colleagues,

we kindly invite you to the next Helsinki University Environmental Humanities Forum on

October 30, 2018, at 14.00-16.00

at the Language Center (Fabianinkatu 26) Seminar Room 403

when Professor Julia Lajus, from the Laboratory for Environmental and Technological History at the Higher School of Economics St Petersburg, Russia will present her recent research

“Natural resources in environmental and technological history of Russia”

Julia Lajus is an Associate Professor and Leading Researcher, Academic director of International Master Programme in Applied and Interdisciplinary History “Usable Pasts”, Head of Laboratory for Environmental and Technological History of the Center for Historical Research, Department of History, National Research University Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg campus;

Please kindly follow the link below to learn more about Julia’s work:

https://www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/4414313

Professor Lajus’ latest publications include:

Red herring’: The unpredictable Soviet fish and Soviet power in the 1930s. In: Competing Arctic Futures: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, ed. by

Nina Wormbs. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018 (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology), pp. 73 – 94.

Experts on Unknown Waters: Environmental Risk, Fisheries Science and Local Knowledge in the Russian North. In: Eurasian Environments: Nature and Ecology in Imperial Russian and Soviet History, ed. by Nicholas Breyfogle (Russian and East European Studies), 2018.

Russian Environmental History: A Historiographical Review. In: The Great Convergence: Environmental Histories of BRICS, S. Ravi Rajan and Lise Sedrez (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp. 245 – 273.

Looking forward to seeing (meeting) you!

With kind wishes, Viktor Pál and Mikko Saikku

Helsinki Environmental Humanities Forum is going to broadcast several sessions from the BALTEHUMS First Baltic Environmental Humanities Conference on October 8-9, University of Latvia, Riga.

Our radio broadcast will begin at 10 AM EET (9 AM CET) on Monday, October 8 and will be available via Twitter at https://twitter.com/DanubeGuardian

On Monday, October 8, starting from 10 AM EET/9 AM CET we will broadcast:
1-1. Forum discussion: What is the Contribution of Environmental Humanities to the Sustainability and Climate Change Debate: Viktor Pál, Dorothee Cambou; Parker C. Krieg, Julia Lajus, Ulrike Plath, Mikko Saikku, Inna Sukhenko

Detailed program is available here: http://eseh.org/wp-content/uploads/BALTEHUMS-Program-FINAL.pdf