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The University of Southampton
TAG 2016 Southampton

S24. Thinking through archaeology and the environmental humanities

Session organizers:

Ben Gearey (University College Cork, b.gearey@ucc.ie), Matt Law (Bath Spa University and L-P: Archaeology, m.law@bathspa.ac.uk) and Suzi Richer (University of York, suzi.richer@york.ac.uk)

Session abstract:

'At its most basic, environmental humanities work has always challenged the idea that nature or the environment simply “is”. Environmental humanities suggest rather…that human ideas, meanings and values are connected in some important way to the shape that the "environment out there" assumes' (Neimanis et al 2015)

The emerging field of environmental humanities seeks to bridge disciplinary divides between the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences. It questions the separation between humanity and nature, and draws from Western, Eastern and indigenous ways of knowing and experiencing the environment to address environmental issues such as climate change, sustainability and conservation.

Many of these concerns have been (and are being) explored by archaeologists across the world and speak to ongoing theoretical and methodological debates within the discipline. Despite this seemingly apparent crossover, archaeology within the UK has remained largely independent from the environmental humanities. Indeed outside of Scandinavia, it could be argued that there has been little formal engagement between archaeologists and research in the environmental humanities.

This session seeks to explore some of the points of intersection between archaeology and the environmental humanities agenda, and to foster collaborations beyond the field of archaeology.

We welcome papers that address the following themes and questions:

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