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Rievdat, jorrat, gulahallat: The unrecognized environmental histories

In this keynote lecture, I approach the theme of the conference from the perspective of Sámi research. By presenting Sámi viewpoints and environmental relationships, I aim to highlight how minority ways of thinking are frequently marginalized or excluded in discussions about the past, present, and future.

First, I will discuss the invisibility of Sámi histories and understandings in the nature narratives of the North on national platforms. Second, I will introduce the Sámi concept _duodji_ ('Sámi handicrafts') and the practice of _duddjot_ ('to make _duodji'_), approaching them as acts of multispecies reciprocal care that constitute Sámi co-becoming with the environment. I employ duodji as an example of alternative ways to approach environmental histories and as an opportunity to underscore that there is not just one reality, one environment, or one environmental history, but rather a multiverse of overlapping and interlocking realities shared with other beings. Finally, I will conclude with comments on the challenges, threats, and opportunities within transdisciplinary collaboration between Indigenous communities and academia: What is the role of Indigenous Peoples and their knowledges in the attempt to find solutions to the global ecological crises?

My title, "Rievdat, jorrat ja gulahallat," is a North Sámi translation of the key concepts of the conference. Sámi is a verb-based language, and in my translation, the keyword nouns have been turned into polysemous verbs: 'to change' or 'to drift,' 'to spin' or 'to turn into,' and 'to communicate.' I have chosen to use Sámi concepts in my otherwise English presentation to emphasize the importance of language in knowledge production. For me, the Sámi language reflects Sámi thinking and how we understand the world. Furthermore, the use of an endangered Indigenous language in an academic conference presents an opportunity to highlight how the language we use and the epistemologies underlying our thinking influence the types of research questions we are able to ask. What impact will result if the research questions and objectives of environmental histories are based solely on one-sided epistemologies, source materials, and conceptions of nature? Moreover, if we do not challenge the tradition of unidimensional and unilateral knowledge production, what critical opportunities are missed to ensure safe and just futures for all beings?

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Áile Aikio (she/her) is a Sámi scholar from Ohcejohka, Finland. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lapland, Finland. Her research interests encompass Sámi studies, museums and cultural heritage, duodji, and decolonization and indigenization practices. Currently, Aikio is engaged in the project "Sámi Political Traditions and Thought in Co-becoming with the Environment," funded by the Academy of Finland. Her recent publications include her doctoral dissertation "Saamelainen museo? Tutkimus saamelaisen kulttuuriperinnön ontologisesta politiikasta" ['Sámi Museum? A Study on the Ontological Politics of Sámi Cultural Heritage'] (2023) and the co-edited volume "The Sámi World" (2022). Prior to her academic career, Aikio was curator at the Sámi Museum Siida in Inari.

Photograph by V. Rinne

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India’s sudden, unprecedented success at the Oscars in 2023 with All that Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers, both documentaries with strong environmental-humanist themes, brings to new light the fact that the arts have always been engaged with issues concerning the environment. The South Asian Plenary Roundtable topically focuses on the theme Environmentalism and the Arts broadly, which could include musical cultures, dance, performing arts, film, documentary, as well as literature. The panel will have up top five speakers and each panelist can focus on and speak to a specific text/tradition and extrapolate on what kind of environmentally-formed historical understanding is possible when the axis is shifted to, say, a marginalized people’s or an animal’s or a waterbody’s history of representation/s.

Organizer: Anupama Mohan, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IITJ)

Participants: Ananya J Kabir (King’s College), Naiza Khan [visual artist], Shaunak Sen [director; with screening], Anupama Mohan [novelist; IIT Jodhpur], Annu Jalais (Krea University)

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This plenary session highlights Oulu's position right at the doorstep of the Arctic, demonstrating a variety of scholarly perspectives on this unique and environmentally critical region. It will be arranged in the form of short pecha-kucha-like presentations from scholars working on Arctic-related topics. The presentations are planned not as formal papers, but as brief overviews of the presenters’ research topics and their relevance to knowledge about Northern environments. The final part of the session will be dedicated to an open discussion. Arctic Spotlight aims to showcase the disciplinary richness of Arctic research and enhance the visibility of scholarly projects related to Northern environments and residents. The session is open to all WCEH participants. 

List of presenters:

    1. Lotten Gustafsson Reinius, Stockholm University

    2. Urban Wråkberg, UiT the Arctic University of Norway

    3. Ritva Kylli, University of Oulu

    4. Hanna Eglinger, Friedrich-Alexander Universiät Erlangen-Nürnberg

    5. Charlotte Wrigley, University of Stavanger

    6. Nathalia Brichet, University of Copenhagen

    7. Otso Kortekangas, Åbo academi

    8. Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo, University of Lapland

    9. Vesa-Pekka Herva, University of Oulu

Discussant: Sverker Sörlin, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

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The past five years have seen the birth of a vibrant interdisciplinary field, the environmental humanities. The expertise of the natural sciences by themselves have not in and of themselves have not yet translated fully into a coherent vision of sustainability. Environmental issues are being addressed by many academic disciplines. Ecologists and environmental scientists try to understand the natural world and study the impacts of human activities on biodiversity. Climate scientists study the dynamics of the atmosphere and build models to predict future movements of air, water, and land/soils and suggest policy actions. Environmental social scientists, on the other hand, focus on the relations between policy and behavior, between economics, ecological “services” and human consumption of resources, and so forth. Yet to achieve balance, environmental humanities studies address and describe the cultural dimensions of the environment, where interactions are expressed in poetry, religion, plastic arts, and language. Water as a theme perfectly affords this.

Organizers: James McCann (Boston University) and Admire Mseba (University of Southern California)

Presenters: Izabela Orlowska (ZMO, Berlin), Julia Tischler (University of Basel), Admire Mseba (University of Southern California), Nana Kesse (Clark University)

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The Role of Mutualisms in Natural Histories of the Future

To ecologists, mutualisms are relationships in which two species interact in ways that both benefit.

Mutualisms have been fundamental to human evolution and history, albeit relatively neglected by scholars. In this wide-ranging talk--spanning from honeyguides to dogs to bacteria that live in the mouths of ants-Dunn will explore the prehistory of human mutualisms as well as the radical transition that occurred as some human populations began to collaborate (or, should it be, began to be domesticated by) yeasts and grains. Radical new, transformative mutualisms with pigs, goats, sheep and, eventually, chickens would follow. The units evolutionary biologists and ecologists use to measure these ancient mutualisms are units of evolutionary fitness. But as we consider the mutualisms of the future, we can make choices about how we measure our partnerships with other species and whether they are mutually beneficial. We can also make choices about the species with which we partner. Dunn concludes by considering the ways in which we might imagine different kinds of futures in which we partner with far more species on new terms. He focuses particular attention to the role of pleasure in general and flavor in particular in these relationships.

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Dr. Robert (Rob) Dunn serves as Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs at NC State University. In this role, Dunn oversees the Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, which includes: the Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program; the Data Science, Genetics and Genomics, and Global One Health Academies; the Biotechnology Program; the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative; NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship; the Integrative Sciences Initiative; the Long View Project; the Sustainable Futures Initiative; and the Shelton Leadership Center. He has worked alongside university leaders and campus partners to stand up the office, and is responsible for equipping new interdisciplinary initiatives for success, continuing to support existing initiatives, and achieving the office’s strategic goals.

Dunn also holds a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Applied Ecology, where he devotes 20 percent of his time. He has been a member of the NC State faculty since 2005. Dunn manages the Public Science lab. His research has been awarded more than ten million dollars in grants from no fewer than twelve different sources for work in 20 different countries.

Dunn received his Bachelor of Arts in biology from Kalamazoo College, and his Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from the University of Connecticut. He is an avid writer and has published many popular articles, in National Geographic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal among many others, as well as seven books, most recently, A Natural History of the Future and Delicious, The Evolution of Flavor and How it Made us Human, with Monica Sanchez.

Website: https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/people/rob-dunn/
https://robdunnlab.com/
https://yourwildlife.org/

This plenary session will explore four key themes and transitions in Latin America’s environmental past. José Iriarte (University of Exeter, UK) will talk about the region’s deep past, from the arrival of humans over 13,000 years ago until before colonization. He will focus on the nature and scale of pre-Columbian human impact on the Amazon forest, its modern legacy, and the lessons we can learn from past human land use. Since at least two thirds of the region were once covered by forests, José Augusto Pádua (Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro) will discuss the historical factors that help to understand the massive deforestation that has occurred since the 1970s, making the fate of the Amazon Forest one of the icons of global environmental concern. Viridiana Hernández (University of Iowa) will then focus on one of the causes of deforestation: commercial agriculture, from sugar cane in the seventeenth century to soy today. Finally, Antoine Acker(University of Geneva) will discuss Latin America’s particular energy transition, in which wood and oil are more important than coal. The presenters will show how the region’sunique and diverse environments underline pivotal historical trajectories, which are deeply entangled with developments elsewhere in the world.

Chair: Claudia Leal (Colombia, Universidad de los Andes)

Convenors: Sandro Dutra da Silva (Brazil, UniEvangelica), Claudia Leal (Colombia, Universidad de los Andes)

Participants: José Iriarte (University of Exeter, UK), José Augusto Pádua (Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro), Viridiana Hernández (University of Iowa), Antoine Acker (University of Geneva)

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Engaging with topics as diverse as taro, salmon, and nuclear testing, scholars in and of the Pacific are drawing together environmental history, environmental humanities, and more-than-human approaches in new and innovative ways to examine uneven landscape transformations and address the legacies of colonial racial capitalism. This plenary panel asks how are scholars in and of the Pacific world engaging with history and with more-than-human approaches? What are the political and pedagogical stakes of these diverse approaches and what do they offer to environmental history more generally? Is there a distinctive Pacific approach to environmental history, environmental humanities, and the more-than-human world? The plenary grounds these questions in a series of presentations by researchers about their work.

Organizer: Dr. Emily O'Gorman (Macquarie University), Dr. Sophie Chao (University of Sydney)

Participants: Craig Santos Perez (University of Hawai’i at Manoa), Hi'ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart (Yale University), Bonnie Etherington (Victoria University of Wellington), Yen-Ling Tsai (National Chiao Tung University), Frank Zelko (University of Hawai’i at Manoa) and Heather Swanson (Aarhus University)

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Across Disciplines and Communities: Networks of Knowledge and Transformation

Our knowledge production as scholars of humanities and social sciences is conditioned by borders, epistemological and physical, imagined and real.

It is shaped by disciplinary training, location, funding , and different types of governance. While disciplinary training and specialization are necessary, they can impede us from seeing connections across the borders. Drawing on my own experience as a historian of modern Arab intellectual history and currently as a Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, I will discuss in this talk how the network as a methodology allows us to overcome the shortcomings of disciplines and specializations. I will also shed light on both the opportunities and the challenges facing scholarly communities to build (and build on) such networks for our different channels of knowledge production to feed into each other and for us to engage in a global discourse on the future of humanity.

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Dr. Amal Ghazal is the Professor of History and Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. She received her BA from the American University of Beirut and her MA and PhD in History from the University of Alberta. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, and a faculty member at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where she also directed the Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies. She specializes in modern Arab intellectual history, with a focus on intellectual networks. She was the recipient of several grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, of the Gerda Henkel Foundation Research Scholarship, and the Institut d'Etudes Avancées de Nantes Fellowship. Her publications have covered many topics, including nationalism, Islamic reform, sectarianism, slavery, etc. and have encompassed a wide geography, from the Arabian Peninsula to East Africa, from the Eastern Mediterranean to North Africa.