Don't forget the mandatory gathering at the 15th of December, 9:15-15:00, in CEMUS student library at Villavägen 16, Uppsala. See e-mail for more information.

Please let us know by e-mail if you can't attend the gathering.

Best regards,
Karin and Sara

Some of you have had trouble with accessing the two articles "Environmental Crises and The Metabolic Rift in World-Historical Perspective" and "Colonialism and Industrialization: A Critique of Lewis". Before we posted these links to the articles on the website we were told that everyone with access to Uppsala university student services would also be able to access the two websites containing the two articles. Some of you contacted us about not being able to do this and we couldn't figure out why but after talking to the university library we think we know why you can't access the pages. We are now told that you all have to login to your Uppsala university student account before opening the page containing the link. It does not work to try to login with the university user-name and password directly at the page containing the articles but if you login to your account at studentportalen.uu.se or login to your student e-mail account or to your account at the university library first and then click on the article page, you should be able to access the site and read the articles.

We really hope this works! If anyone still can't get access the articles, please let us know and we'll try to help you.

Sorry about the inconvenience! We missed informing everyone about this on beforehand.

Best regards
Karin and Sara

You have to activate the English subtitles yourself by clicking on the subtitle icon at the bottom of the film. Only the Chinese commentaries are subtitled.

The seminar assignment for week 48 (deadline: Thursday November 29th) is now published! To see it, click on "Assignments" here on the course webpage.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Good luck!
/Karin and Sara

Some students have e-mailed us and asked us some questions about the main examination assignment, the article assignment. We are continually aiming to improve the course, so we really value the students opinions.

Here is some answers that we think might be useful to everyone:

In Ponting's book, he presents many small processes in environmental history, within and beside the "mega-process" of collapse. Berg and in particular Radkau have many examples of smaller processes. The online course material has also contained many different examples, and you'll find more in the material you've yet to familirize yourself with.

What we mean with a process in environmental history is a way of explaining and conceptualizing a historical change which relates to the environment. I realize this may sound rather vague, maybe the following examples help:

A process in environmental history can be very small or very large. You can for example limit your article by choosing a certain geographical area, or a certain time period. A slim example would be writing about about gendered water-usage in Iceland during the 1500s. A larger example could be writing about erosion in Africa through history. The latter example might of course be too large for such a relatively short article, but it could be narrowed down by for example writing about how erosion has been viewed through history or at a certain time, or at a certain place. Another example could be writing about the use of chemicals in industry and how this has affected different classes in society and the environment in a certain place. The changes in agriculture from poly- to monocultures is another example of a environmental process in history.

The historical environmental processes need only relate to, or contribute to, a society's functioning in its emergence or decline. We're not asking for a huge essay on one big process which can "explain" said emergence or decline.

The assignment is to then take the environmental process that you choose to write about and relate it to a contemporary sustainability challenge we face today.

Hope this clarifies things, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us if anyone of you have any questions!

Best regards,
Sara and Karin

The video The Myth of the "Clash of Civilzations" by Edward Said (from week 43) is now working again!

Now you can find the seminar assignment for week 45 posted here on the website! Click on "Assignments" to find it.

Good luck!

/Karin and Sara

The documentary: Brazil - An Inconvenient History (from online course material week 43) is now working again! Please let us know if the video stops working again or if any of the other videos stops working.

/Karin and Sara