MedStud

Organisier(s):
Oddělení ekologie Brno - Botanický ústav Akademie věd ČR, Zentrum für Umweltgeschichte - Unversität Klagenfurt, Medieval Studies Dept.- CEU

Contact person(s):
Radim Hédl, Péter Szabó, Verena Winiwarter

E-mail:
rhe@centrum.cz, szabo@policy.hu, verena.winiwarter@uni-klu.ac.at

Sponsor:
Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office, Brno, Czech Republic

Historical ecology is among the youngest and most dynamically developing research disciplines. It is strongly interdisciplinary, connecting humanities (history, archaeology) with natural sciences (botany, ecology). With a growing concern about the state of the global environment, historical ecological research is needed to answer crucial questions as to how present environments have been influenced by past interactions between human activities and natural processes.
Historical ecology, however, being a young discipline, is institutionally somewhat under-developed. There are very few departments or research institutions dedicated to this research area. National meetings are rare, and the meeting of European colleagues is possible almost only at the biannual conferences of the European Society for Environmental History.
The conference proposed will bring together Czech, Austrian and Hungarian historical ecologists to discuss their current projects and also to establish whether there are any common grounds, similar trends and specific local characteristics to be observed in Central Europe. Our aims also include discussing university curricula to foster a unified, quality approach in teaching historical ecology in our region. Such a meeting would provide the missing link between large congresses (such as the ESEH) and the isolated efforts of individual researchers or smaller national groups.

Friday, 26 Oct. 2007

10:00 – 10:15
Opening remarks
by Verena Winiwarter, Radim Hédl, József Laszlovszky, Péter Szabó

10:15 – 11:45
Session I - Teaching

Verena Winiwarter (A): The challenges of teaching environmental history

Thomas Pfeffer (A): Virtual spaces for collaboration in teaching historical ecology

Martin Gojda (CZ): Teaching the archaeology of landscape: A holistic approach

11:45 – 12:15
Coffee break

12:15 – 13:45
Session II – Landscape History and Landscape Archaeology

József Laszlovszky (H): The memory of past landscapes: Historical and archaeological approaches

Václav Matoušek (CZ) − Tereza Blažková (CZ): The issue of researches on modern landscape in vedute of battlefields of the Thirty Years' War in the area of the Czech Republic

Csilla Zatykó (H): Landscape and/or environment in rural settlements

13:45 – 14:45
Lunch

14:45 – 15:30
Discussion on morning lectures and student presentations by Ronald Würflinger (A) and Andrea Stockhammer (A) and Silvie Kuldová (CZ)

15:30 – 17:00
Session III – Historical Ecology and Modern Ecology

Zsolt Molnár (H): Alkali vegetation in Hungary before the river regulations

Petr Karlík (CZ): Vegetation and soil ecology of ancient and recent calcareous grasslands on the Francoscian and Swabian Alb

Radim Hédl (CZ): Past use and present shape of the lowland forests of the Czech Republic

17:00 – 17:30
Coffee break

17:30 – n.s.
Discussion, student presentations
by Magdolna Szilágyi(H), Gergő Persaits(H) and Zdeněk Kučera(CZ)

Saturday, 27 Oct. 2007

9:00 – 10:30
Session IV – Palaeoecology and Historical Ecology

Péter Majkút (H) − Pál Sümegi (H): Environmental history of the peatbog at Nagybárkány (Hungary)

Petr Kuneš (CZ): Early Holocene human impact on vegetation in the Czech Republic

Péter Szabó (H): The history of Hungarian woodland: Where do we stand

10:30 – 11:00
Coffee break

11:00 – 12:30
Session V – Climate History

Petr Dobrovolný (CZ): Climate reconstruction of the Czech lands since 1500: Data, methods, contemporary results

Lajos Rácz (H): Climatic and environmental changes in Hungary during the modern epoch

Andrea Kiss (H): Environmental, landscape and climate history networks and education at the Department of Physical Geography, Szeged University

12:30 – 13:30
Lunch

13:30 – 14:30
Discussion on morning lectures and student presentations
by Petra Kušková (CZ), Robin Rašín (CZ), Martin Kopecký (CZ) and Anna Varga (H)

14:30 – 16:00
Session VI – Environmental History

Simone Gingrich (A) − Fridolin Krausmann (A): Historical Sustainability Research: Past processes and present challenges

Gertrud Haidvogl (A) − Martin Schmid (A): Towards an environmental history of the Danube: Long-term socio-ecological research of an European Watershed

Karel Stibral (CZ): Beauty of nature: The end of connecting beauty with proportionality and usefulness in modern era aesthetics

16:00 – 16:30
Coffee break

16:30 – n.s.
Student presentations, final discussion

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H-1051 Budapest, Nádor u. 9. - Tel.: (36-1)327-3024, Fax:(36-1)327-3055, E-mail: medstud@ceu.hu