Co-moderators: Andy Bruno (Northern Illinois University) and Pey-Yi Chu (Pomona College)
The Summer Research Laboratory of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will host the virtual workshop, "Climate and Society in Eurasia: Past, Present, and Future," taking place online from June 28 to June 30, 2021. Scholars will explore interactions between climate and society in Russia, East Europe, and Eurasia. What effects have historical climate fluctuations had on the peoples and cultures of these regions, and what are the current and future implications of rapidly advancing climate change?
Projects might investigate such themes as migration, disaster preparedness, water and food security, environmental justice, sustainability, development, species and habitat degradation, and biodiversity loss. Our goal is to foster multifaceted and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding these and other climate-related concerns. We seek to build a community of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including (but not limited to) history, anthropology, literary and cultural studies, geography, sociology, environmental studies, and political science.
The workshop follows upon an earlier meeting that took place as part of the 2020 Virtual Summer Research Laboratory. Building on those conversations, we will devote the bulk of the workshop to giving and receiving feedback on works-in-progress. The program will also include supplementary programming for sparking fresh perspectives on climate in Eurasia. The workshop will be moderated by Andy Bruno from Northern Illinois University (abruno2@niu.edu) and Pey-Yi Chu from Pomona College (pey-yi.chu@pomona.edu).
For questions about the Summer Research Laboratory, funding, and information on other workshops, please see the main SRL page located here: summer research laboratory.
This workshop is made possible by funding from the Department of State’s Program for the Study of Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (Title VIII).