Short Abstract:

This roundtable brings together early career scholars and practitioners to reimagine the future of environmental history and the communities with whom we work. This roundtable will be followed by a reception and launch for the Routledge Handbook of Environmental History.

Long Abstract:

Environmental history is both an established and continually innovative field. This roundtable brings together early-career scholars and practitioners from around the world to discuss the future of environmental history at a time when the field is changing in response to a shifting scholarly landscape, job-market constraints, and current socio-ecological crises. In an unusual collaboration project, the panelists recently co-authored the “Afterword” for the Routledge Handbook of Environmental History, co-edited by Emily O’Gorman, William San Martín, Mark Carey, and Sandra Swart. This roundtable panel will feature the work not of the co-editors but rather of these early-career authors, their shared views, and their differing visions of the future of environmental history while engaging the audience to reimagine pathways for a better future for environmental history and the communities with whom we work. The roundtable exemplifies WCEH themes: it captures transitions in the field across global space and generations of environmental historians; it emphasizes disciplinary transformations as environmental history expands its imprint both beyond the academy and into new world regions; it is transdisciplinary with scholars from different subdisciplines; and fundamentally panelists underscore the need for environmental history to transcend academic histories and institutions to engage pressing socio-ecological issues. Roundtable panelists include Cintia Velázquez, Jessica Urwin, Sangay Tamang, Jayson Porter, Nicolo Ludovice, and Bryan Kauma. This roundtable will be followed by a sponsored reception and launch for the Routledge Handbook of Environmental History. The Handbook will be launched by the President of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO), Graeme Wynn.