People and Nature in Historical Perspective

The course is intended to explore the ever-changing relationship between people and the nature that surrounds them. Environmental history and landscape history are among the most topical issues of present-day historical research; they aim to find solutions to current problems (global warming, nature conservation, etc) by analyzing historical data with interdisciplinary methods. While environmental history is predicated on the construction of sequences and explanations that privilege natural processes and data, landscape history tends to favor cultural, social, and economic data, explanations, interpretations, and processes. The two interpretations, however, are not mutually exclusive, but rather intimately related to each other, and only together can form a coherent overall picture. One of the significant contributions of the course is that it intends to study the human environment in its entirety, thus conforming to the overall scientific trend in which the division line between natural and cultural heritage gradually disappears. One of our principal goals is to introduce the wide range of research possibilities connected to this field of study. Therefore the course will be more of a presentation of the different techniques that can be applied to study the history of our environment than a compact unit focusing on one narrowly defined object or method.

The methodology of environmental history has been developed in Western Europe; the ECE countries have just started to establish the scientific and academic background to apply these methods. Therefore the dissemination of current teaching and research methodologies is essential, for which the SUN course will provide an excellent basis. The network built between Western European countries, alongside those from the ECE region with more advanced knowledge in the subject, and the ECE countries will largely facilitate future cooperation and will ensure that landscape history be one of those subjects in which the whole of the European scientific community work together towards a deeper understanding of our common past.

Course level, target audience

This course is designed essentially for participants with some prior knowledge of East-Central European cultural, historical, and environmental processes. It is not intended as either a strictly postgraduate or a professional upgrade course. The interdisciplinary nature of the whole research area will most likely result in a diverse student body, from university researchers through heritage specialists to local historians. In other words, participants will have some background knowledge in different topics, and will certainly benefit from acquiring data and methodology from related fields of the interdisciplinary spectrum of the course.

Application requirements

Applicants are required to send a maximum two-page research topic proposal. This proposal has to be taken from their study areas but must be compatible with the topics of the course. The proposals will be discussed and elaborated during the course, and the participants will finally produce posters, which will be made available on the Internet.