Module Convenor: Tom Simpson

Early modern and modern empires reshaped nature through extracting, planting, and building on previously unprecedented scales. In turn, changing concepts of nature and diverse experiences of particular environments moulded empires. Starting from a selection of written and visual primary source material, each seminar on this course examines a distinct environment, exploring how various empires (including non-European ones) changed and were changed by these surroundings.

Learning outcomes

• Critically engage with, and appropriately deploy, theories and methods of environmental history.
• Understand the historical co-constitution of empires and environments on large spatial and temporal scales.
• Relate micro, local, and regional case studies to macro, continental, and global scales of analysis.
• Gain expertise in relating historical analysis to audiences trained in a range of scientific and social scientific disciplines, and in turn learning and incorporating insights from these disciplines.
• Identify how past human-environment interactions and past forms of environmental knowledge can inform and enrich understandings of present-day environmental concerns and priorities.

Outline Syllabus

AUTUMN TERM

2. Empires and environments: an overview

Block 1: Imperial environments

3. Plantations

4. Coasts

5. Mountains

Reading week

7. Deserts

Block 2: Nonhuman life

8. Microbes and insects

9. Livestock and working animals

10. Wild and hunted animals

SPRING TERM

11. Plants

12. Assessment skills: environmental history for an interdisciplinary audience

Block 3: Imperial interventions

13. Forests

14. Canals and dams

15. Energy and fuels

Reading week

17. Mining and extraction

Block 4: Knowing natures

18. Early modern maritime and land empires

19. Global visions

20. Fears and environmentalisms

SUMMER TERM

Block 5: Summing up

21. The Empireocene?

22. Imperial Natures: big themes and questions

Assessment

• Seminar contribution: 10%
• 1500 word essay: 10%
• Presentation and portfolio: 40%
• 7 day take home assessment: 40%