Institutes of History at Tallinn and Tartu University & KAJAK (Estonian Centre for Environmental History)

Time: 10-12 September 201412 September 2014
Venues: Tallinn and Tartu
Deadline: 15 January 2014

• Keynote: Verena Winiwarter: „The body moves, though slowly, towards desire.“ (Theodore Roethke). Sensitive and toxic bodies in environmental history

„Environmental history goes through the belly“, said once Donald Worster, but not only that. The balance between the human bodies, their basic functions and needs (including spiritual), and the well-being of other life forms is a central issue of societal and environmental resilience. As such, it has always been an object of regulation and control on one hand, or a measure of catastrophes on the other. Bodies have always been both – physical realities and metaphors, objects of desire and of control. They produce and consume, devour and get consumed, feel and think but also exert calculated control over other human and non-human organisms. The failure to manage the needs of societies and environments results in catastrophes, the consequences of which are measured first and foremost through and by bodies. Read more and Source …