Valuing Nature – Histories of Everyday Engagement with the Environment in France, Britain and their Empires, 1600-present

Workshop organized by Ariane Fennetaux (maîtresse de Conférences, Université Paris Cité), Laura Carter (maîtresse de Conférences, Université Paris Cité), Chris Manias (Kings College London), with the support of the Paris IAS

Free entrance with mandatory registration : afennetaux@yahoo.com

Presentation

How has the natural world been valued, and how have different types of engagement with nature and the environment been valued?
Previous studies have focused largely on the intellectual history of the natural sciences, and how concepts like 'the environment' and 'biodiversity' were defined by scholars before trickling down to various publics. By contrast, Valuing Nature adopts a bottom-up approach. Focusing on France, Britain and their empires, we consider how practical engagement with plants, animals, landscapes, seascapes, natural materials and climate have been crucial to changing understandings and valuations of the natural world. We centre on everyday engagements with nature, whether by taxidermists, craftsmen, educators, amateur botanists, western or Indigenous people. Our aim is to broaden understandings of the actors involved in the growth of environmental consciousness, while thinking about how different skills and forms of knowledge have been variously valued, shaping epistemological hierarchies to this day.

Program

September 13, 2022

09:00-09:30
Coffee, registration, and welcome/introductions
Room 830, Université Paris Cité, Olympe de Gouges building, place Paul Ricoeur, 75013 Paris

09:30-11:30
Ladan Niayesh (Université Paris Cité)
‘Monetizing Nature: Mapping Assets and Risks in the 1550s Russian and English Empire-Building Projects’

Vinicius de Carvalho (KCL)
'Competing discourses about the Amazonia’

James Metcalf (KCL)
‘Strange and Foreign Forms’: Queer Ecology and Eighteenth-Century Women’s Poetry’

Marine Bellégo (Université Paris Cité)
‘Valuing intertidal zones in nineteenth-century Brittany’

11:30-12:30
Lunch

12:30-14:00
Travel to Fontainebleau

14:00-15:00
Coffee and introductory talk at the station d'écologie forestière with Odile Loison (Head of Programmes)

15:00-17:00
Guided Fontainebleau Forest walk with Claude Lagarde (Forest Warden and former officer of the French Forestry Commission, biodiversity manager for the inter-regional agency of Fontainebleau / Forestier, ancien responsable à l'ONF du pôle biodiversité pour l'agence interdépartementale de Fontainebleau)

17:00-19:00
Travel to Paris/free time

September 14, 2022

09:00-09:30
Coffee and welcome
IEA de Paris, 17 quai d’Anjou, 75004 Paris

09:30-11:30

Nathalie Blanc (Université Paris Cité)
‘The ecoanxiety of animals and plants in cities’

Louisette Rasoloniaina (Université Paris Cité)
‘Overlayering the layers, pulling the threads, and weaving the echo-systemic thinking’

Alana Harris (KCL)
‘Cultivated gardens and untamed wilderness: mental health metaphors and therapeutic practice in Britain’s Asylums’

11:30-13:00
Buffet lunch at IEA de Paris

13:00-14:00
Travel to La Ferme du Rail

14:00-15:00
Guided tour of La Ferme du Rail with Clara Simay (Architect Dplg, project manager and co-founder of Grand Huit)

15:00-17:00
Networking, projects, closing discussion

17:00
End of workshop

Practical information

Free entrance with mandatory registration : afennetaux@yahoo.com