{"word_count": 410, "character_count": 3120}
Veranstalter: European Society for Environmental History (ESEH)’s 8th biennial conference "Greening History: Studying the Environment across Disciplines, Past, Present and Future"Datum, Ort: 30.06.2015–03.07.2015, VersaillesDeadline: 20.09.2014We intend to submit one or two panels on “Monasteries and Environment” for the ESEH conference in Versailles, France (30 June - 3 July 2015). Papers contributing to the mentioned subject would be very welcome. You will find more information about the planned panel in the abstract below.We invite you to send your abstract (200 - 300 words, including the name, title, affiliation and email address of the presenter(s)) until 20 September 2014 to chantal.camenisch@hist.unibe.ch.For further information on the ESEH 2015, see also www.eseh.org/event/upcoming-conference.Panel AbstractFrom the Early Middle Ages through the Modern Period, monasteries have played an important role in European environmental history. Depending on their religious order, the monks sought places in the wilderness near forests or floodplains. Monks cleared forests to obtain cultivated land, and they established field rotations systems. Therefore, monasteries shaped landscapes. Fish ponds were maintained in these places in order to feed the monks during lent. To maintain these fish ponds, elaborate techniques of water use were established and, for the purpose of food production and gaining medicine, the monks planted vegetables and herbs in gardens.In addition, monasteries were places where the written tradition survived during the Migration Period and in the Early Middle Ages. The monks wrote chronicles on everything important to the monasteries where they lived, including weather anomalies and natural disasters. Later they wrote weather diaries. Written evidence of the perception of nature and the environment have also survived from the early Middle Ages.This panel aims to trace the activities emanating from monasteries that led to changes in the environment and includes all continents and all epochs, in effort to answer the following questions: What were the reasons for the many interventions into the environment? Which methods did the monks (and nuns) apply for that purpose? How did the monks understand nature and the environment through the centuries? What sources can be used for researching these topics?Possible topics include but are not limited toDeforestation and land reclamation by monasteriesConcepts of landscaping used by different ordersMaintenance of gardens in monasteriesMaintenance of fish pondsTechniques of water useInnovations and techniques in land useForest exploitation by monasteriesNatural disasters and hazards hitting monasteriesWeather observations in monasteriesResource conflictsPerception of environment and nature in monasteriesKontakt: Camenisch ChantalUniversity of Bern, Section of Economic, Social and Environmental History (WSU)Länggassstrasse 49, CH-3012 Bernchantal.camenisch@hist.unibe.chDer Beitrag bei H-Soz-u-Kult:http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=25687 via https://twitter.com/hsozkult/status/505314770287751169