about
The UC Davis Humanities Institute’s Environmental Humanities supercluster is a multi-disciplinary research group designed to facilitate faculty study of complex envirocultural problems, support graduate students and postdoctoral scholars working in the field, and collaborate with communities affected by environmental challenges. It brings together the large number of UC Davis humanities scholars in individual departments and programs who are already working on environmental issues to share resources, works-in-progress, and mentoring responsibilities with their colleagues and the public. Read More »
activities
Conference:“California, the University, and the Environment”
Date: May 7-8, 2009
Location: Buehler Alumni Center, University of California, Davis
California universities have long played a major role in imagining and managing their nearby environments, from the development of irrigated agriculture in the Central Valley to the incubation of the environmental movement. This multi-disciplinary conference brought together scholars from across the region to examine the many ways that university researchers, communities, campuses, and systems have helped physically and ideologically reshape the California environment into the complex political and cultural entity it is today. As a whole, the conference attempted to assess the historical impact of the universities on the California environment as well as to draw lessons leading to more thoughtful impacts in the future. Webcasts of all presentations are now available on the conference website.[conference website]
Brownbag Presentation
James Smith, “That Which You Have Eaten: Towards an Anthropology of the Digital Age in the Eastern DR Congo and Beyond”
Date: Friday, April 24
Time: 12-1:30pm
Location: DHI Conference Room (228 Voorhies)
UCD Anthropology professor James Smith discuss his recent work on the social-cultural and politcal-economic consequences of coltan mining in the Eastern DR Congo. (Coltan is a silicate used in all digital technologies; most of the world’s suppy is in the DR Congo, and the war that has waged there intermittently since 1996 has been fought, in no small part, over control of this substance.) Come hear about the material underbelly of the digital age, in particular the connection between digital age disembodiment and the highly embodied experience of war, incarceration, extraction, and deforestation in the DR Congo.
no pre-circulated draft; bring your lunch; bring a friend |
funding
The Environmental Humanities supercluster is funded by a grant from the 20th Anniversary-UC Presidential Humanities Initiative Program. Read the proposal submitted to the Office of the President.
Support for the spring 2009 conference is also provided by the EPA Air Quality Center at UC Davis and the John Muir Institute of the Environment.
join
For more information on research cluster activities or how to join the group, contact the cluster coordinator Michael Ziser at mgziser
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