We are pleased to announce the official start of our DFG-funded scientific network “Russian Ecospheres. Forms of Ecological Knowledge in Russian Literature, Culture and History”, which brings together literary, cultural, historical and natural scientists from Europe and North America.
The aim of the network is to historically outline ecology as a figure of knowledge, a category of analysis and an interdisciplinary paradigm in research on Russia and the Soviet Union, to establish it in terms of research policy and to popularize it in the wider public.
Setting and implementation of goals:
To start with, the network is going to hold a three-day conference from June 24th to 26th, at the Freie Universität Berlin. At this conference, basic texts on the history of ecological thinking will be discussed, studies of the history of ideas and concepts presented and the state of research on sub-areas of ecological research debated.
For this purpose, transpositions of ecological knowledge between literature, culture and society are examined in paradigmatic subject areas such as research on the Russian Arctic, deserts, forests and soils. From a systematic point of view, the network discusses approaches that update specific forms and concepts of ecological thinking from the Russian tradition (e.g. the concept of the sphere, ecological semiotics or geopoetics) and make them suitable for current theoretical debates.
Structures are established in the form of publications (anthology and handbook on ecological thinking in Russia and the Soviet Union) and platforms (international study group for ecological issues related to Russia and the Soviet Union), which increase the visibility and profile of the hitherto, especially in literary and and cultural studies, only fragmentary research approaches to ecology.
Funded by:
Coordinated by:
"Russian Ecospheres" 