History, Politics and the Environment

CFP: Radical History Review nr 107

UntitledHistory, Politics and the Environment - New York 10/08CFP: Radical History ReviewClimate change has placed environmental concerns squarely within an emerging political discourse that transcends national boundaries.
Indeed, the impact of climate change has called attention to the roles nation-states play in dealing with domestic and international environmental issues. As such, the Radical History Review seeks papers that explore the intersection of politics and the environment from a broad historical and transnational perspective. We encourage submissions that investigate the politics and interconnections between nations and environments.

We envision this issue to build on and argue with Donald Worster's influential essay, "World without Borders: The Internationalizing of Environmental History" (Environmental Review 6 fall 1982), which encouraged historians to move beyond the nation as a way to explore and explain human and nonhuman histories. Yet we take the position that political borders do matter, but question to what degree they shape and transform environments and the politics of nature. As such, this special issue seeks to explore how changes to nature have engendered a range of political responses within different spatial and temporal contexts. How, for example, does nationhood and state formation affect the politics of the environment? How do a state's natural resources shape the politics of the nation within a global economy? How does conflict and power between nations influence a state's environmental politics? How have international governance institutions addressed these issues? How have global economies changed the natural world and how have nations responded to the transformation of nature? When and how do changes in nature become politicized? Who does it include or exclude? How does it change over time?

We encourage potential contributors to explore the following issues, among other possibilities:

  • Environmental racism and injustice
  • Colonialism and its impact on the natural world
  • Nature and diplomacy, including, but not limited to international environmental governance
  • State power as a means of controlling people and nature
  • The impact of war on nature
  • Gender politics and the environment
  • The politics of disease and disease transmission
  • Food production and global trade
  • Religion, politics and nature
  • Economic development, nature and the significance of the market
  • Labor, resource extraction, and environments
  • Green Politics and social movements
  • Political responses to environmental disasters
  • The significance of the global commons as a political instrument

Radical History Review solicits article proposals from scholars working in all historical periods and across all disciplines, including art history, history, anthropology, religious studies, media studies, sociology, philosophy, political science, gender, and cultural studies.

Submissions are not restricted to traditional scholarly articles. We welcome short essays, documents, photo essays, art and illustrations, teaching resources, including syllabi, and reviews of books and exhibitions.

The editors of this special issue also envision a section exploring the field of environmental history as it relates to transnational politics and we welcome submissions that reflect, rethink and critique its history.

Radical History Review publishes material in a variety of forms. We are particularly interested in submission that use images as texts and encourage materials with strong visual content. In addition to articles based on archival research, we encourage submissions to our various departments, including:
Historians at Work (reflective essays by practitioners in academic and non-academic settings that engage with questions of professional practice)

  • Teaching Radical History (syllabi and commentary on teaching)
  • Public History (essays on historical commemoration and the politics of the past)
  • Interviews (proposals for interviews with scholars, activists, and others)
  • (Re)Views (review essays on history in all media--print, film, and digital)

Potential contributors are encouraged to look at recent issues for examples of these non-traditional forms of scholarship.

Procedures for submission of articles:
By October 15, 2008, please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article you wish as an attachment to [mailto]rhr@igc.org[/mailto] with "Issue 107 abstract submission" in the subject line. By November 30, 2008 authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for peer review. The due date for complete articles is January 30, 2009. Articles should be submitted electronically with "Issue 107 submission" in the subject line. For artwork, please send images as high resolution digital files (each image as a separate file). Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 107 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in Spring 2010.

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2008
Email: [mailto]rhr@igc.org[/mailto]

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David Kinkela and Neil Maher
Radical History Review
Tamiment Library, New York University
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
E-mail: [mailto]rhr@igc.org[/mailto]
Homepage [url]http://chnm.gmu.edu/rhr/rhr.htm[/url]