Environment
Environment in Asia Series Featuring Ying Jia Tan – War and the Reconfiguration of China’s Energy Geography
Speaker: Ying Jia Tan, Assistant Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University In Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882–1955 (Cornell University Press, 2021), Ying Jia Tan argues that, even in times of peace, the Chinese economy operated as though still at war, constructing power systems that met immediate demands but sacrificed efficiency […]
Environment in Asia Series – Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-Developmental State
Speakers:Ashley Esarey, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of AlbertaJoanna Lewis, Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA),Georgetown UniversityMary Alice Haddad, John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Chair and Professor of East Asian Studies, and Professor of Environmental Studies, Wesleyan UniversityStevan Harrell, Professor […]
Environment in Asia Series featuring Brian Lander – The Ecology of China’s Early Political Systems
Speaker: Brian Lander, Assistant Professor of History, Brown UniversityDiscussant: Ling Zhang, Associate Professor, Department of History, Boston College By encouraging us to rethink familiar historical processes through an ecological lens, the field of environmental history provides new insights into the past. Lander's book The King’s Harvest uses such an ecological perspective to examine the formation of […]
Environment in Asia Lecture Series featuring Victor Seow — How to Write a History of Energy in Modern East Asia
Speaker: Victor Seow, Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard UniversityModerator/discussant: Ling Zhang, Boston College In this session, Victor Seow, Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, will be introducing his recently published book, Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022). Centered on the history of what was […]
Environment in Asia series featuring Michael J. Hathaway – What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake Mushrooms and the Worlds They Make
Speaker: Michael J. Hathaway, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the David Lam Center for Asian Studies, Simon Fraser University This talk introduces the second book in an academic trilogy that began with Anna L. Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World. In this talk, Michael J. Hathaway draws from his forthcoming book. […]
“Environment in Asia” Reunion with a Tribute to Robert Marks and Peter Perdue
Presented via ZoomRead our blog posts on the event: Exploring How the Environment Shapes China’s History and Conference Examines Planning and China’s Rapidly Growing Cities Organizer: Ling Zhang, Boston College; Convener of the Environment in Asia series Note: Due to the limited capacity of the venue, the symposium will be a closed-door event. The public may view […]
Environment in Asia Series Panel Discussion – Stevan Harrell’s “An Ecological History of Modern China”
Presented via ZoomPanelists: Stevan Harrell, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington Peter Perdue, Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University Jesse Rodenbiker, Assistant Professor of Geography, Rutgers University Robert Weller, Professor of Anthropology, Boston University Organizer: Ling Zhang, Associate Professor of History, Boston College Presented via Zoom. Register at: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BOeCcyb9RL2LQMD8zQwg9A Venue
Environment in Asia Series featuring Scott Moore – The Climate Risk to China’s Rise: Political, Economic, and Ecological Implications of Extreme Weather in China
CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United StatesSpeaker: Scott Moore, Practice Professor of Political Science and Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania Convener of the Environment in Asia series: Ling Zhang, Associate Professor, Boston College There is a growing case that of the world’s major economies China’s is most heavily exposed to climate risks. This talk probes the […]
Environment in Asia Series featuring Yiyun Peng and Brian Spivey – Herbaceous Revolution and Environmental Protection: Introducing New Scholarship in Chinese Environmental History
CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United StatesSpeakers: Yiyun Peng, D. Kim Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History, University of ChicagoBrian Spivey, Mellon Faculty Fellow, History Department, UC IrvineSeries Convener: Ling Zhang, Associate Professor, Boston College Yiyun Peng received her PhD in history from Cornell University in August 2023 and is currently the D. Kim Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the […]
Environment in Asia Series featuring Jesse Rodenbiker – Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China
CGIS South Room S250 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United StatesSpeaker: Jesse Rodenbiker, Associate Research Scholar, Princeton University; Assistant Teaching Professor of Geography, Rutgers University-New Brunswick Discussant: Stevan Harrell, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington; author of An Ecological History of Modern China Ecological States critically examines ecological policies in the People's Republic of China to show how campaigns of scientifically […]
Environment in Asia Series featuring Timothy Brook – The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming China
CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United StatesSpeakers:Timothy Brook, The University of British Columbia, Professor EmeritusClark Alejandrino, Trinity CollegeYan Gao, University of MemphisIan M. Miller, St John’s University Series Convener:Ling Zhang, Boston College In 1644, after close to three centuries of relative stability and prosperity, the Ming dynasty collapsed. Many historians attribute its demise to the Manchu invasion of China, but the […]
Environment in Asia Series Lecture featuring Huaiyu Chen – Human-Animal Studies and Religions in Medieval Chinese Society
CGIS Knafel K262 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, United StatesSpeaker: Huaiyu Chen, Arizona State UniversityDiscussant: Brian Lander, Brown University This study illustrates how Buddhism shaped Chinese knowledge and experience of animals after it gradually took root in Chinese society in the medieval periods, and vice versa, how Chinese state ideology, Daoism, and local cultic practices reshaped Buddhism in understanding and engaging with animals. Taking […]