2027 Conference - Richmond, Virginia

Exploring the Roots and Boundaries of a Field - March 31 - April 3, 2027

In 2027, we will gather in Richmond, Virginia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the American Society for Environmental History, and to think about where we’ve been and where we are headed as a scholarly community. At the society’s inception, ASEH’s original members were animated not only by their own intellectual curiosity about and personal experiences with the natural world, but also by concerns about environmental degradation. This ethos has continued to shape our field and become even more urgent at a time when we face so many environmental challenges, many quite different from the ones with which we grappled fifty years ago. Donald Worster has noted that the field of environmental history emerged precisely as a “new openness” in the discipline of history led scholars to question what voices were and were not included in historical narratives and what had value in historical study. How do we continue to open up our field to new perspectives and voices, both human and non-human, and expand it to meet the pressing needs of our time?