Call for Applications: PhD Position in Palaeoclimatology at Heidelberg University
The Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) at Heidelberg University invites applications for a PhD position in Palaeoclimatology within the Junior Research Group (JRG) “Environment and Society.” The position will start on September 1st 2013 or as soon as possible thereafter, and is awarded for 3 years. Although Heidelberg University does not charge tuition, the position is remunerated according to the TVL 13 scale, and includes a fully equipped work space, access to travel funds, and laboratory facilities. The JRG investigates the co-development and entanglement of society and environment, with a focus on historical famines. It is interdisciplinary in scope and combines approaches of palaeoclimatology and geoarchaeology with environmental history.
The successful applicant is expected to complete a Ph.D. focussing on the reconstruction of historical climates based on multiproxy climate archives. Successful applicants should hold a Master’s degree in geography, geoarchaeology, earth sciences or environmental physics. They should have received training in climate modelling and/or palaeoclimate dynamics. Previous experience of interpreting and collecting multiproxy climate archives is desirable but not mandatory. Applications must include a cover letter, CV, academic transcripts, a short statement of research interests (in English or German), and one letter of recommendation (sent separately). Heidelberg University is an equal opportunity employer and wishes to promote equality at all levels.
Potential candidates can contact the group leader Dr. Dominik Collet (dominik.collet@uni-heidelberg.de <mailto:dominik.collet@uni-heidelberg.de>) for more information. The deadline for applications is June 30th 2013, though applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Please submit your application electronically as a single PDF to the following address: dominik.collet@uni-heidelberg.de <mailto:dominik.collet@uni-heidelberg.de>
New Study of Tropical Ice Cores
This week’s issue of Science contains a new study of ice cores from the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes. Thompson et al. take advantage of new measurement techniques to present an annually resolved record of past climate. The largest signal in the record is the Little Ice Age, especially during c.1520-1680AD, a period marked by particularly low oxygen isotope ratios, highly correlated to lower temperatures. Records of nitrate and ammonium ions give further clues to changes in regional circulation, including a possible southward shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone during the Little Ice Age. However, the authors are cautious about drawing further conclusions regarding the source of these signals.
Upcoming Workshop on Climate Change, Migration, and Race.
A workshop entitled “Race, alterity and affect: rethinking climate change-induced migration and displacement” will take place from 18 to 19 June at Durham University in England. From the H-Net Announcement: “the aim of this workshop is to bring debates about climate change and migration broadly defined into dialogue with contemporary critical race theory and postcolonial theory. Recent interventions have suggested that racialisation in the context of debates about climate change and migration unfolds through at least three interrelated tropes: naturalisation, the loss of political status, and ambiguity. This work also argues that given their historiographic emphasis, theories of the postcolonial on their own appear to be insufficient for properly theorising the alterity of the climate change migrant. This is because climate change and migration discourse is written in the future-conditional tense. In contrast, others have embraced theories of the postcolonial to interpret issues of climate change and mobility. Thus one of the aims of this workshop is to consider how critical race theory and theories of the postcolonial might be usefully reinterpreted to address the future-conditionality of climate change and migration discourse.”
To register, contact Ellie Whittles (e.c.whittles@durham.ac.uk).
Organisers: Andrew Baldwin (Durham University) and Katherine E. Russo (Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale)
Partners: COST Action IS1101 Climate change and migration; Institute for Advanced Studies (Durham University); Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale
New studies explore social context of natural disasters
The journal Environment and History has recently published a special issue devoted to historic floods in medieval and early modern Europe. In an editorial introduction, historian James Galloway explains that studies examining environmental disasters have multiplied since the 1980s in the kind of history that seeks connections between the human and non-human worlds. Increasingly, natural disasters are not perceived as unavoidable transgressions on society – “acts of God” – but, instead, as a product of a particular society. Natural catastrophes are, in fact, “social phenomena” located at the intersection of a society’s unique pattern of vulnerability and resilience in its relationship with the nonhuman world. The papers in the latest issue of Environment and History reconstruct past natural disasters, consider the interactions between them and past societies, and measure the relevance of such research in an era particularly prone to environmental catastrophe. Read more
Upcoming Talks on Climate History
<from “Perceptions du climat” and ICHM>
1. Séminaire “Perception du climat”, EHESS, 105 boulevard Raspail, Paris:
Jeudi 18 avril, 15h-17h, salle 1
Evénement météorologique et réseaux techniques :
le cas de la tempête du 14 novembre 1854
Fabien Locher, historien, EHESS
2. Two lectures of Christian Pfister, invited by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Collège de France, (salle 5), Paris:
Jeudi 16 mai, à 14h30
Record breaking hot and dry years – a comparison of 2003 and 1540 in Western and Central Europe
Mercredi 22 mai, à 14h30
Le Petit Age Glaciaire dans les Alpes et son impact sur les sociétés, 1300-1860
Seminar: The History of Climate Change and the Future of Global Governance
<From H-Env>
The History of Climate Change and the Future of Global Governance
Department of History, Columbia University
May 28 – August 16, 2013
New York, NY
The Hertog Global Strategy Initiative (HGSI) seeks talented undergraduates, graduate students, and mid-career professionals for its 2013 seminar on the History of Climate Change and the Future of Global Governance.
HGSI is a research program that explores how the world community has responded to planetary threats to derive lessons that will help us take on the challenges of the present and the future. Each summer, a select group of participants comes to Columbia University for three months to work with leading scholars and policymakers. This year’s initiative hopes to train a new generation of researchers and leaders who understand both the development of climate science and the changing nature of world politics.
The 2013 seminar will be taught by Matthew Connelly, Professor of History at Columbia University, and Jim Fleming, Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Colby College. They will be assisted in the classroom by Deborah Coen, Paul Edwards, Mike Hulme, Anthony Janetos, Bill McKibben, Geoffrey Parker, Gavin Schmidt, John Topping, and other leaders in the field.
Participants pursue original research both independently and in teams. Students will receive eight credit points for the seminar, the equivalent of two semester-long courses at Columbia.
For more information about the program or financial aid opportunities, visit: globalstrategy.columbia.edu.
You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Please direct any further questions to globalstrategy@columbia.edu or 212-854-9854.
Apply at globalstrategy.columbia.edu
Deadline: April 12, 2013 (Note: applicants will be admitted on a rolling basis)
