As climate change and biodiversity loss become two major environmental concerns of the twenty-first century, it is high time we address medieval perceptions of the natural environment and how they can inform our own relationships with the world we are occupying and inevitably changing. This first volume of the Environmental History series titled Human and Nonhuman Relations and Imaginaries in the Middle Ages seeks to explore the many ways in which humans perceived, studied, imagined, interacted with, used, and transformed their natural environment in the medieval period. We invite chapter contributions addressing (but not limited to) suggested topics:

• Various aspects of human-animal relationships, wild and domesticated animals, fishing and hunting, pets, working animals, vermin and parasites, animals as food, veterinary, medieval taxonomies, animalistic humans and humanised animals, ‘wild men’, animal trials.

• Human-made environments and the constructions of ‘wilderness’, anthropogenic ecosystems, agriculture and farming, pastures, water and land management, forest clearings, waterways, canals, wetlands, urban ecologies, waste management, food production.

• Inorganic environment, inorganic resources, mining, metallurgy, and other manufactures.

• Various aspects of predicting and controlling disasters, weather and climate, forecasting, storms, flood management and coastal defence, earthquakes and volcano eruptions, human-caused pollution, anomalies, disease.

• Various aspects of the construct of ‘nature’, nature as a sign, beauty and aesthetics, fantastic animals, nature in art and literature.

SUBMISSIONS AND DEADLINES

We welcome proposals from PGRs and ECRs. Please send your abstract of approximately 300 words along with a short bio to Polina Ignatova (polina.ignatova@liu.se) and Emelie Fälton (emelie.falton@liu.se) by 1 September 2023.

PUBLICATION

The volume will be published in the Environmental History series of the imprint Trivent Medieval.

Download the Call for Papers in PDF format HERE.