Rachel Carson Center (LMU RCC) - SD Rachel Carson Center (RCC)

Climate had a key role in shaping the settlement and development of the West in the United States, according to Carson Fellow Lawrence Culver. By using historical sources, including government land surveys and travel accounts from settlers, Culver demonstrates the important role climate played for both survival and profit in the westward expansion process. Lawrence Culver is an associate professor in the Department of History at Utah State University, where his areas of research and teaching include the cultural, environmental, and urban history of the USA.

The intersection between neuroscience and history frames Carson Fellow Edmund P. Russell’s research project. Russell looks as the role of functional magnetic resonance imagining (FMRI) in historical research, especially with regard to its effect on human understanding of different types of environments. Edmund P. Russell is an associate professor at the Department of Science, Technology, and Society and the Department of History at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on environmental history and the history of technology.

In a unique approach to exploring transformations in land use, Carson Fellow Anne Milne uses poetry from the laboring class in eighteenth century Britain to understand different perceptions of nature during this era. These poets were often described as “natural geniuses.” Milne considers how nature figured in the representation of these poets as individuals; her work also aims to track changes in land use. Anne Milne is an ecocritic who specializes in restoration and eighteenth-century British literature. She currently teaches in the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences Program at the University of Guelph, Canada.

How have US American ideas about nature conservation influenced the conception of nature in China? Carson Fellow Hou Shen bases her research around the nature writings of three well-known American writers—Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson—in order to demonstrate how the idea of preserving nature for humans and for other species has been interpreted and transformed in Chinese culture. Hou Shen is currently an assistant professor at the history department of the Renmin University of China in Beijing. She explores the introduction, reception, and transformation of American ideas of nature conservation and its practices in China.

Carson Fellow Lajos Rácz explains the importance of climate history for the overall history of early modern Hungary. Documented climate data has only been in existence since the nineteenth century; therefore, Rácz reconstructs the pre-nineteenth century Hungarian climate from primary sources like diaries and letters. He uses such historical climate data in order to analyze how climate impacted the manner of everyday life during this era. Lajos Rácz is a professor at Szeged University and a visiting professor at Central European University, Budapest. He has specialized in climate and environmental history research since 1985.

How have humans changed rivers throughout history, and what issues of social and environmental justice shape human interaction with rivers and, more generally, water? These questions shape the research of Carson Fellow Melinda Laituri, who is engaged in a comparative study between the Danube and the Colorado River. By using remotely sensed data, Laituri tracks changes in the development of the river; Laituri’s research also examines the human right to water. Melinda Laituri is currently based in the Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Watershed Stewardship at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on the role of the internet and geospatial technologies of disaster management and cross-cultural environmental histories of river basin management.