Dear Members and Colleagues,

The American Society for Environmental History has decided to postpone our April 2021 conference in Boston because we are not confident that Covid-19 will allow us to hold a large, in-person meeting this coming spring. We are extremely disappointed that we will not be able to see everyone. We are going to use next year as an opportunity to connect through regional meetings and local events that bring environmental historians together and environmental history to a wider audience - Environmental History Week.

Environmental History Week is an international celebration of environmental history, organized by environmental historians of all stripes to foster scholarly collaboration, academic research, teaching and public awareness of environmental history. It will take place April 19-25, 2021, and will coincide with Earth Day.

Please join us by organizing an event in your area, and sending information to us so we can publicize it on the Environmental History Week events calendar on the ASEH.org website. You can help diversify environmental history by inviting colleagues, scholars, and community-members who do not normally attend environmental history conferences to participate. Find collaborators by posting on H-Environment, other H-Net lists, and social media channels listed on the Environmental History Week website. ASEH will help connect people and organizations, and promote and amplify the events and good works in your communities.

Environmental History Week events can take many forms. In person, face-to-face events could be all-day mini-conferences; environmental history lectures on a campus or at a public library or museum; student presentations at a student research symposium; film series with audience discussions; field trips or tours, or hands-on projects in collaboration with nonprofits in your area; or a teacher training program for local K-12, community college, or graduate students. Digital events could be virtual conferences conducted on an online, video conference platform; streamed films with online discussions; self-guided field trips; or a virtual museum exhibit. Programs for all audiences are welcome. If you have other ideas for events, please share them. ASEH will maintain a calendar of affiliated events and promote all Environmental History Week activities. Check aseh.org for regular updates and information

Environmental History Week replaces the 2021 American Society for Environmental History conference in Boston. We are very grateful to the Boston Local Arrangements Committee for all their work. ASEH's annual meeting will return in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon; in 2023 ASEH will meet in Boston. In the meantime, Environmental History Week will provide rich opportunities for intellectual exchange, and for engaging the public, K-12 teachers, and scholars in adjacent fields in an era when global pandemic makes a large, international conference risky and unwise. We also hope that Environmental History Week will generate models for low-carbon alternatives to large academic conferences.

Please join us as we celebrate environmental history and help us bring our interests and knowledge to a broader public.

Thank you for your support.

American Society for Environmental History

ASEH has signed the AHA Statement on the History of Racist Violence in the United States.

The AHA has issued a statement urging a reckoning with the United States' deplorable record of violence against African Americans, a record that stretches back centuries. The killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers stands within this sordid national tradition of racist violence. It is past time for Americans to confront our nation's past, using insights from history to inform our actions as we work to create a more just society. 

Dear ASEH Members,

I feel torn apart by recent events.  The Covid-19 epidemic and job layoffs have caused terrible suffering in communities of color.  In the midst of that crisis came the horrific killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.  Those murders are, of course, only the most recent examples of a long history of racism and injustice toward African Americans in the United States.  Protestors have flooded into our streets to call for justice, and in too many cases police have responded to peaceful protest with violence. 

In the midst of a terrible time, I am writing to say to all our members—and especially African Americans and members of other oppressed groups—that ASEH stands with you and condemns racism, injustice, and brutality.  I do not pretend to know what it feels like to be African American, but anyone can see that we live in a world of pain.  I too feel anger and despair.

Now, as ever, we must work diligently to enact our principles of equity and inclusion in ASEH, educational institutions, and all of society.  I encourage all of us to contact colleagues, even by brief texts or emails, to let them know we support them.  We need to be ready to listen and respond to colleagues who voice their experiences with racism and injustice.  If there is a particular way in which I can help you, please let me know.  

Sincerely,

Edmund Russell