TONIGHT! Register for the Zoom link and come hear two Bristol CEH academics @samlebutt.bsky.social and Milo Newman and our fabulous York EUC speaker Cole Swanson discuss their material artistic practices with the more-than-human! Expect fungal collage, auk eggs, and avian performance!
@samlebutt.bsky.social
NEXT WED!
Please join us for Thinking thru More-than-Human Materials, 3rd in our More-than-Human/ities seminar series w/ York University, Toronto
Come explore interdisciplinary practices of creative, more-than-human materiality! 🐦🥚🍄
Wed 4 March
17:45–19:15
Register here yorku.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
@alicewould.bsky.social
TOMORROW!
Please join us for More-than-Human Curation, 2nd in our More-than-Human/ities seminar series w/ York University, Toronto
Come explore how art & wildlife interact in museum settings & curatorship🦣🌾
Wed 4 Feb
17:45–19:15
Register here yorku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1ON4d36KQQWSXZUwX10Nuw
The Modernist Exoskeleton has been reduced to £11 this weekend: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-mod...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Geo: Geography and Environment by Mingcan Rong (2025) entitled: 'Cultivating Scientific Authority: A Vegetal Geography of Chinese Rhododendrons at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh' with an orange banner at the top. This paper presents a vegetal geography of Chinese rhododendrons at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), examining the mechanisms through which RBGE's scientific authority is established in the field of Rhododendron research and conservation. Building on the geographical conceptualisation of relational plant agency, this paper extends it by illustrating that attending to the rhododendron–people–environment relationship sheds light on the ecological–political nature of the Rhododendron species at RBGE, the broader historical contexts that stimulate the accumulation, and the environmental conditions that encourage the maintenance. Drawing on interviews, observation and document analysis, I illustrate the contribution and labour of the underappreciated Chinese collectors in the historical botanical exploration, discuss rhododendron's ‘plantiness’ and examine RBGE's contemporary activities that aim to accumulate and sustain the ex situ rhododendrons both materially and epistemically. I argue that the scientific authority of RBGE has been shaped by the semi-colonial history of China after the First Opium War ending in 1842, the encounters between British botanists and local collectors, as well as RBGE's intentional accumulation and maintenance of rhododendrons and related knowledge, all of which are mediated by rhododendrons' agency and continue to influence today's conservation dynamics.
🌺New in Geo🌺
'Cultivating scientific authority: A vegetal geography of Chinese rhododendrons at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh' by @mingcan-rong.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/geo2... #geosky
A rare photosynthesizing sea slug has been found off N.S. Here's why scientists are excited #NovaScotia
Researchers believe Elysia chlorotica holds promise for medical advances, but it's been too elusive to study
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
‘The narwhals stop calling’: how the noise from ships is silencing wildlife in the Arctic #Canada
Evidence that the whales and other marine animals are particularly vulnerable to sound is driving calls for quieter vessels
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A collection of environmental films made by Indigenous filmmakers that I've screened in Ecocinema over the years (shared today for obvious reasons):
1. It Starts with a Whisper (Shelley & Gronau Niro, 1993) vucavu.com/en/cfmdc/199...
My book Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums came out this month!
I’m so happy with how gorgeous it is in full color with 90 photos.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Applications are open! Environmental history is a key part of this Environmental Humanities summer school + thinking about how our relationships with the natural world changes over time. Along the way we might well visit Iranian oil fields, Antarctica and the deep sea!
Please share! More info and application details here: www.bristol.ac.uk/centre-for-s...
…the connection between humans and nature felt so alive here and every session sparked something new in me. What surprised me most was how deeply I connected with art, nature and people. It’s something I’ll carry with me for a long, long time."
Our fabulous Environmental Humanities Summer School is open for applications for 2026! Together, we examine human relationships with nature on a Global scale, and with the city of Bristol. According to 2025 cohort student Choon Woi “Bristol itself became part of the classroom…
Today, we are sharing a recent blog post written by Zakiya McKenzie, Senior Research Associate on the ‘Plants Enslavement and Public History Project’ historiansatbristol.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/archives/941
‘In August 2025 I visited the Natural History Museum of Jamaica in downtown Kingston. The public exhibition on Jamaican bats and the library at the museum are worth the visit, but another treasure lies in the herbarium. There I met the Curator for the National Herbarium, botanist Keron Campbel…’
Our absolute pleasure to host this wonderful two-day British Academy-funded workshop on extraction and extractivism last week. Thank you @melinabuns.bsky.social 🙏💫
such wonderful two days with fantastic scholars! thank you to everyone who engaged in discussions about extraction, extractivism, and beyond!
thank you to the @britishacademy.bsky.social for making this workshop possible and to @uobrisceh.bsky.social for hosting it.
#envhum
🪨 🌊 🌿
@drandyflack.bsky.social @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social @danielbowman.bsky.social
Register online: yorku.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Register in-person (University of Bristol, Clifton Campus): forms.office.com/e/XkTLgG9z4X
Join us for More-than-Human Sensory Worlds, the first in our hybrid 'More-than-Human/ities' seminar series, a new collaboration between UoB's CEH & EUC at York University, Toronto.
Come explore the shared sensory worlds of human and nonhuman animals! 🦅🐇🌃
Wed 19th Nov
17:45–19:00
Online & in-person
Two display cases with animals
Had a great day in Stockholm.
In morning met with folks at the natural history museum who I will be collaborating with on a new project called HEART. Saw my extinct friends.
Then afternoon with Stockholm Univ EnvHum group and giving a talk on Ghosts Behind Glass. Packed room & fantastic questions.
Coming up on day two of Extractive Natures/ Natures of Extraction we have bodies, we have places, and we have power!
I think lots of you all will be as excited as I am to see Jess Moody’s “Plants, Enslavement and Public History” project website
and you can sign up for the mailing list in the little box in bottom right corner
plantpublichistory.blogs.bristol.ac.uk
🗃️🌿🪴
Group photo of 16 academics on a lawn with an autumnal tree and buildings behind them.
Day one of the Extractive Natures/Natures of Extraction workshop, organised by @melinabuns.bsky.social as part of her @britishacademy.bsky.social fellowship here at Bristol @uobrisceh.bsky.social . Great papers that spanned resource extraction from medieval Europe to modern day Australia
Was great to celebrate Electric Wind with friends and colleagues @uobrisceh.bsky.social @uobrishistory.bsky.social . I was most excited about the book-cake. Cake-book. A book made of cake!!!!
Here’s @dudleymarianna.bsky.social introducing her new book to the world, in conversation with CEH co-director Paul Merchant. Everyone go read: ‘Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain’! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/
And tomorrow kicks off the ‘Extractive Natures/ Natures of Extraction’ workshop led by our fabulous visiting scholar @melinabuns.bsky.social. Phew! Stay tuned for more!
In 5 minutes it’s our very own @dudleymarianna.bsky.social book launch for the beautifully titled Electric Wind! More photos to come! …
