With the chair in Economic, Social and Environmental History since 1998 (Christian Pfister) and its replacement with the denomination Environmental and Climate History from 2010 (Christian Rohr), the Institute of History has a unique selling point in Switzerland. However, research into environmental history has not been limited to the Department of Economic, Social and Environmental History (WSU) for some time now, but plays an important role in many departments, both among professors and among senior and junior academic staff.
The topics range from the reconstruction of historical climate and their impact on society, to research into (natural) disasters, human-animal relationships, the history of natural resources, agricultural and forestry history, and the environmental history of tourism. The history of knowledge and visual sources also play an important role in most of these topics. In several cases, the possibilities offered by digital history and digital humanities are used to communicate the research results, whether in the form of climate databases or digital editions. The Alps are a geographical focus, but numerous other European and non-European regions are also being studied. Space is understood not only in terms of territories, landscapes and areas, but also more abstractly, for example in the context of research on verticality. The temporal focus ranges from Greco-Roman antiquity to the present day.
As before, two to three meetings per semester are planned, each of which will be devoted to a specific topic after the exchange of general news. The following topics are conceivable:
- Discussion of draft versions of programmatic essays and research proposals
- Presentation of individual research projects and research groups
- Joint visits to exhibitions or other events
- Ideas for potential collaborative projects
