Hi everyone!
If you look back a few posts you will see the ones I put up about my wonderful experiences on the Svartarkot course in Iceland.
Well now you too have the opportunity to be involved with this wonderful project, as this year’s (Summer 2015) course application deadline is approaching!
The information and links are below – deadline is January 15th so still plenty of time!
Announcing a unique graduate course in integrated Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences
in Bárðardalur, Northern Iceland, 5-15 June 2015
Understanding the Human Dimensions of Long-term Environmental Change: Transformations of Iceland from the Viking Era through the late Medieval Period (CE 850-1500)
The Svartarkot Culture-Nature intensive graduate summer course (7.5 ECTS)Understanding the Human Dimensions of Long-term Environmental Change is co-organized by The Reykjavik Academy, City University of New York and Mid Sweden University, in close cooperation with NABO (The North Atlantic Biocultural Organisation), NIES (The Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies), GHEA (The Global Human Ecodynamics Alliance) and the Circumpolar Networks case of IHOPE.
Aimed at masters and doctoral-level study, this summer course based on the Northern edge of the Icelandic highland wilderness addresses questions of long‐term societal resilience in the face of climate change, competition and societal conflict over natural resources, effects of early globalization and anthropogenic transformation of landscapes and ecosystems at multiple times scales.
Building upon the successful course Environmental Memory and Change in Medieval Iceland organized in August 2014, the 2015 course involves multiple excursions and lectures in the field and integrates perspectives, theories and methodologies from multiple disciplines in the environmental humanities and social sciences. The course focuses chiefly on human dimensions of long-term environmental change with the aid of innovative digital humanities tools and outputs, close reading of medieval documentary and literary sources in translation and reviews of the latest archeological and palaeoecological research and field work in Northern Iceland. All course lectures, readings, discussions and writing will be in English.
Understanding the Human Dimensions of Long-term Environmental Change integrates the lectures, presentations and workshop discussions from the following academic disciplines & research fields:
• Environmental Archeology
• Integrative Digital & Environmental Humanities
• Historical Ecology
• Environmental History
• Environmental Anthropology
• Saga Studies
• Palaeoecology
• Literary Ecocriticism
The official course description online includes useful information on application procedures, deadlines, tuition, practical arrangements, and full contact details.
Welcome to Bardardalur this summer for an outstanding opportunity to study environmental change in and among some of Iceland’s most intriguing and arresting environments at the edge of the Arctic Circle.
Sincerely,
Vidar Hreinsson, The Reykjavík Academy
Thomas McGovern, Hunter College CUNY
& Steven Hartman, Mid Sweden University
