Environmental history is the historical study of the complex interactions that humans have - and have had - with the rest of nature. It is history that understands “nature” as one of the four basic categories of historical work, alongside politics, culture and economics. The DFG Heisenberg Professorship pays particular attention to global and planetary environmental issues such as resource extraction, waste disposal and environmental justice and primarily deals with the Anthropocene era. It teaches global environmental history in the context of environmental humanities, an interdisciplinary combination of the liberal arts and social sciences.

Environmental history has its antecedents in landscape history, historical geography and the Annales school of French historiography. Since its emergence in the context of the modern ecological movements of the 1970s, it has developed into a vibrant and engaged interdisciplinary field - particularly in the context of the interdisciplinary Environmental Humanities.

Environmental history offers an unusual opportunity for synthesis between historical subfields and between disciplines such as ecology, geography, science studies and anthropology. At the University of Augsburg, environmental history works closely with environmental ethics, human geography, the Environmental Science Center (WZU) and the Center for Climate Resilience.

This coming winter term you can learn more about environmental history in the context of the Environmental Humanities here:

• Hauptseminar “Atmen. Eine Geschichte der normalsten Sache der Welt“,
  Monday 14:00 – 15:30, Seminar Room D 2129
   
• Hauptseminar “Is Winter still coming? A History of Snow and Ice, and Climate in the 19th and 20th Century. (Excursion)”, Monday 10:00 – 11:30, Seminar Room U 101 at the WZU
   
• The Green Hour, Thursday 12:00 – 13:00, WZU Room
  During the winter term 2024/25, the WZU hosts lunchtime mini talks on current research in the field of Environmental Humanities. Researchers from the University of Augsburg and international guests from the humanities and social sciences will briefly introduce their work to inspire a conversation about the topic.

The Global Environmental History and Environmental Humanities offers an immense selection of topics. Starting with topics like activism and toxicity as well as reaching into the domain of food and animals, there is something for everyone. The list contains books that are already available in the library of the university in Augsburg and books which are in the process of acquisition.

To give you an introduction to Global Environmental History and Environmental Humanities, we put together an array of literature. You can find the PDF with all the collected books here. If you would like to take a closer look at certain chapters, you can download the PDF below.