The environment and climate change are issues that are gaining increasing attention and urgency in the climate of today’s world. While there has been rising historical works on the human impact on the environment since the 1960s and 1970s, less
Volcanos (with a tiny bit of international law)
It has been about a week since I last terrorised (read bored) my flatmates with talk of a historical volcano. The last culprit was the 1815 eruption of Mt Tambora, recently connected to the ‘year without a summer’ phenomena by
Non-Human Histories, The Capitalocene, and Volcanoes
Unconventional times call for unconventional history, so here we are. This week’s readings featured an ever-fascinating combination of environmental histories, discussions on the Capitalocene, and much volcano talk. As someone who loves intertwined histories and new perspectives, I was intrigued
Global Intellectual History
Not having been based in the nation state intellectual history it is perhaps less obvious immediately what the addition of the ‘global’ aspect adds. However, intellectual history has predominantly focussed on western thought and often only connected it to the
Can The Subaltern Speak and Contemplations for Historians
“Can the Subaltern Speak?” is the famous question posed by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her article on how historians’ study and ultimately engage in the nature of Subaltern peoples. In this, Spivak argues that no the historian cannot access the past
Essay Topic
This week’s subject, Postcolonial Approaches and Global Intellectual History, came at perfect timing for my essay research. During the unconference last weekend, I decided to focus on theory and intellectual history that will help frame my later project. My project
Teaser Trailer: what didn’t make the word count
Montreal mayor, John Dradeau, famously stated that “the Olympics can no more run a deficit than a man can have a baby”. Despite an original estimate that the games would cost the city C$120m, Montreal was left with a bill
Intertwining ideas from Essay and Project
As we approach our methodological essay’s deadline, I am becoming more and more grateful that I chose subject matter a bit more specific to my project topic. I considered for a good bit whether to focus on something more basic,
Too Eurocentric? Hitting roadblocks
Chernobyl is situated in Ukraine, at the fringe of Eastern Europe. There are so many explorations of the affect of Chernobyl in Soviet and post-Soviet states, and on Western Europe, which is what led me to explore this topic on
Global Intellectual History (w/ some Short Paper Thoughts)
This week’s topic could not have come at a better time. Discussions on global intellectual history and postcolonial theory are not only extremely relevant in today’s political, social, and environmental climate (pun intended) but provide a new perspective to both
General thoughts on global intellectual history and theory.
In the spirit of week 8’s seminar on Global Intellectual History I have decided to address some of the things I have been thinking through in relation to the upcoming essay deadline. I will be writing on Global Legal History,
The environment and the “glocal empire”
As I am still researching my short essay on the links between environmental history, history of empire and transnational history, I would like to use this post to outline some of my thoughts. Having chosen to work on environmental issues,
New Possible Project Perspectives
While researching for my short essay on the development of transnational history and its impact on the historiography of women’s history, I came across another dimension that I could incorporate into my project: that of gender history and theory. While
Post-Unconference: Reflections on Research Progress
The unconference was an interesting exercise for me in evaluating how I work and think versus how my peers work and think. While I have looked up “polish women migration” “polish women transition period” so many times at this point,
Unconference Organization of Thoughts
Saturday’s unconference was really helpful for me. I was quite intimidated by the idea of sitting and writing with someone looking over my shoulder, but it was actually really nice to be able to talk out my idea and narrow