Events

Environment in Asia Lecture Series – Infectious Diseases and Public Health Management in China: From Historical and Anthropological Perspectives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQx3sgioXuI https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/infectious-diseases-and-public-health-management-in-china?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank Read the transcript of the event here. Speakers: Nicole Elizabeth Barnes, Duke University Mary Augusta Brazelton, The University of Cambridge Miriam Gross, The University of Oklahoma Elanah Uretsky, Brandeis University Moderator: Ling Zhang, Boston College Nicole Elizabeth Barnes is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies […]

Environment in Asia Series featuring Zhang Meng – Timber and Forestry in Qing China: Sustaining the Market

Speaker: Zhang Meng, Assistant Professor of History, Vanderbilt University Part of the Environment in Asia lecture series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXEB2NB7vhk&t=109s https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/timber-and-forestry-in-qing-china-with-zhang-meng?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank In the Qing period, China's population tripled, and the flurry of new development generated unprecedented demand for timber. Standard environmental histories have often depicted this as an era of reckless deforestation. The reality was more complex: […]

Environment in Asia Lecture Series featuring Ruth Mostern – The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OR4Z30g7gA https://soundcloud.com/fairbank-center/the-yellow-river-a-natural-and-unnatural-history-with-ruth-mostern?in=fairbank-center/sets/public-lecture-series-fairbank   Speaker: Ruth Mostern, University of Pittsburgh This talk showcases Ruth Mostern’s new book: The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History (Yale University Press, 2021).  The Yellow River explains how environmentally transformative human activity has shaped the whole watershed and constituted the relationship between people and the river since Neolithic times.  […]

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 Zoom

Read 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 Zoom

Panelists: 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 States

Speaker: 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 States

Speakers: 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 […]