Presentation

Toulouse University 2 (Le Mirail) and the CNRS, with the support of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), l’Association des Journées Internationales d’Histoire de l’Abbaye de Flaran, and the FRAMESPA (UMR 5136), are organizing an inaugural summer school for rural and enviromental history. This scientific gathering will take place under the patronage of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH).

The summer school will bring together lecturers, mentors, doctoral and post-doctoral students, from France as well as members of the European Society for Environmental History from elsewehere, all working on aspects of rural environmental history of the medieval and modern periods. The organization will cover the principal travel costs and the costs for the duration of the visit. Places are available for doctoral students and immediate postdocs.  Applications must be sent by May 28, 2012 to the Chair of the ESEH: Dr. Dolly Jørgensen

• Place and date

Objectives

This inaugural Rural and Environmental History Summer School has a dual objective: pedagogical and academic.

1. It is aimed in the first instance at junior researchers (doctoral and post-doctoral) from France and elsewhere, who will have the opportunity to present their work and to discuss it with researchers at a more advanced stage. Particular attention will be paid to sources and to their treatment by the historian.

2. This gathering should facilitate dialogue between researchers of different nationalities and with different historiographic perspectives. Less formal than a colloquium and with a friendly atmosphere, the Flaran Summer School seeks to become a focal point for debates and discussions between researchers on a new theme—a theme that obliges us to rethink the very foundations of our historical practices, and in particular of our work as “ruralists” or “rural environmental historians”. Comparative thinking and communication between medievalists and modernists will be at the heart of the event.  

Themes and Orientations of the Program

“Rural History v. Environmental History?” The theme chosen for this inaugural 2012 edition of the Rural History Summer School will allow us to consider the relationship between rural history and environmental history. What is the nature of this link? Can these two historiographic traditions be merged? Are the methods, sources, and issues identical? Several lines of enquiry are proposed:

• Historiography
• The sources of rural/environmental history
• Wetlands: issues and management
• The history of pastoral spaces: the example of the Pyrenees
• Communal utilization of resources
• Climate and society

Visiting scholars (selection)

• Jean-Loup Abbé (Univ. Toulouse 2 – Framespa)
• Georges Bertrand (Univ. Toulouse 2 – Géode)
• Samuel Leturcq (Univ. Tours – Citeres)
• Jean-Paul Métailié (CNRS – Géode)
• Grégory Quenet (Univ. Versailles-Saint-Quentin – Sciences Po)
• Christine Rendu (CNRS – Framespa)
• Roland Viader (CNRS – Framespa)
• Anya Zilberstein (Concordia University, Montreal and Rachel Carson Center Munich)

Structure of the Conference

The days will be structured around three sessions (two in the morning and one in the afternoon) The junior researchers will be invited to present their work and their sources during certain sessions.

The working languages will be English and French. 

Registration details

• Places are available for junior doctoral or post-doctoral researchers.

• Preferred research themes are the rural history or the environmental history of “rural spaces” in a broad sense. The period in question is 500 - ca. 1800.

• Given that the working languages are English and/or French, participants must have a basic knowledge of these two languages (participants can express themselves in whichever language they choose).

• Participants will be asked to give a presentation (15 minutes) on the sources, archives, and documents of any kind that form the basis of their research.

• The organization will cover travel costs (up to €250) and the costs for the duration of the visit. 

Given that there are a limited number of places, candidates should send an application containing:

• a comprehensive CV
• a presentation of their sources (1-2 pages)

Before the 28th of May.

A response will be sent on June 4, 2012.

Contact

• Dr. Dolly Jørgensen (Umeå universitet, Sweden)
  Email : dolly@jorgensenweb.net

• Dr. Emmanuel Huertas (Univ. Toulouse 2 /CNRS – Framespa)
  Email: ehuertas@univ-tlse2.fr