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Event Series

Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar

Chairs

Alison Frank Johnson
Alison Frank Johnson
Professor of History, Harvard University; Chair, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Ailish Lalor
Ailish Lalor
Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University
Nikolas Weyland
Nikolas Weyland
Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
 

For as long as Europe has been conceptualized, its internal and external frontiers have been contested. Today’s globalized Europe finds itself enmeshed in debates surrounding international integration, the future of democratic institutions, unprecedented rates of migration, and the existential threat of anthropogenic climate change.

This seminar will facilitate critical dialogues on environmental histories of Europe which challenge both geopolitical and disciplinary boundaries. Events in this series will present scholars whose work uses an environmental lens as a means of rethinking Europe’s boundaries. In foregrounding works that shed light on such intertwined topics such as migration and mobility, enduring imperial legacies, and the diffusion of social movements and political ideals, this seminar seeks to provide a forum for reconsidering Europe in both local and global terms.

** Note: Upcoming events for this seminar will be published here shortly.

Seminar Events Calendar

The Cold Standard: Climate Information and Memory in the Great Winter of 1709 Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — The Cold Standard: Climate Information and Memory in the Great Winter of 1709
April 14, 2026
4:00pm - 5:30pm
  • Speaker Jin-Woo Choi – Prize Fellow, Joint Center for History and Economics. Harvard University
  • Chair Ailish Lalor – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University
Clan, Race, and Gender: Sperm Whales and the Creation of a Nineteenth-Century Pacific World Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — Clan, Race, and Gender: Sperm Whales and the Creation of a Nineteenth-Century Pacific World
March 23, 2026
4:00pm - 5:30pm
  • Speaker Ryan Tucker Jones – Professor and Ann Swindells Chair, Department of History, University of Oregon
  • Chair Ailish Lalor – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University
Conscientious Objectors to the Jet Age? The History of Anti-Airport Activists and Non-Flyers in Europe and Beyond Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — Conscientious Objectors to the Jet Age? The History of Anti-Airport Activists and Non-Flyers in Europe and Beyond
March 11, 2026
11:00am - 12:30pm
  • Speaker Lauren Stokes – Associate Professor of History, Northwestern University
  • Chair Ailish Lalor – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University
Tiny Gardens Everywhere Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — Tiny Gardens Everywhere
March 3, 2026
4:00pm - 5:30pm
  • Speaker Kate Brown – Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Chair Nikolas Weyland – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
A Manhattan Project for the Planet: Cold War, Decolonization, and Earth Science in the 1950s Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — A Manhattan Project for the Planet: Cold War, Decolonization, and Earth Science in the 1950s
April 9, 2025
4:15pm - 5:30pm
  • Chair Lauren Bohm – Ph.D. Candidate in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University
  • Speaker Benjamin W. Goossen – Assistant Professor of International History, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University
An Anti-Global Environment? A Roundtable Discussion with Tara Zahra Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — An Anti-Global Environment? A Roundtable Discussion with Tara Zahra
February 12, 2025
4:00pm - 5:15pm
  • Speaker Tara Zahra – Hanna Holborn Gray Professor of East European History and the College, University of Chicago
  • Discussant Lauren Bohm – Ph.D. Candidate in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University and Ailish Lalor – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University and Nikolas Weyland – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
  • Chair Alison Frank Johnson – Professor of History, Harvard University; Chair, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University; Resident Faculty & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Denouncing Fascism to Save Eugenics: Apes, Men, and Earnest A. Hooton Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — Denouncing Fascism to Save Eugenics: Apes, Men, and Earnest A. Hooton
November 19, 2024
3:00pm - 4:30pm
  • Speaker Quinn Slobodian – Visiting Scholar 2011-2012, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Professor of International History, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University
  • Chair Lauren Bohm – Ph.D. Candidate in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University and Ailish Lalor – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University and Nikolas Weyland – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Mussolini's Conquest of Ethiopia as Total Infrastructural War (1934-1936) Environmental Histories of Europe Seminar — Mussolini's Conquest of Ethiopia as Total Infrastructural War (1934-1936)
October 28, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm
  • Speaker Angelo Caglioti – Assistant Professor of History, Barnard College
  • Chair Nikolas Weyland – Ph.D. Student in History, Harvard University; Graduate Student Affiliate & Seminar Chair, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
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