The Northeast and Atlantic Region Environmental History Forum provides an annual opportunity for scholars to workshop book chapters and article-length papers on the environmental history of northeastern North America.
Each year, the forum is broadly focused on the history of human interaction with nature in the patch of North America from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the New Jersey Shore and inland to the Appalachian Mountains. Projects that meet this criteria are always welcome to be workshopped at this event, but this year the forum will also focus specifically on the environmental history of the “backyard”—that is, local, community-based environmental history. The intention is to create an edited collection with the “backyard” as the focus. A previous volume to come out of NEAR-EH workshopping was The Greater Gulf: The Greater Gulf: Essays on the Environmental History of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (McGill-Queens, 2020).
NEAR-EH 2023 is taking place on 23-25 June 2023 at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The workshopping will take place on the main campus in Charlottetown, and participants will also explore the new Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation and the Greenwich annex of the National Park in St. Peter’s Bay.
We look forward to welcoming you to Prince Edward Island!
All sessions and the reception will be held on the lower level of the Bill and Denise Andrew Hall 142. See Building #19 on the campus map.
Parking will be free for all participants at the lower level of Parking Lot B. It is an ungated lot close to the campus entrance on Belvedere Ave. There are also limited parking spaces at Andrew Hall for those staying in residence, and anyone staying overnight should keep their vehicle there as there is no overnight parking elsewhere on campus.
Preliminary Schedule:
| Friday, 23 June | |||
| Time | Event | Details | Location |
| 6:00-8:00 PM | Opening Reception (dinner provided) | Andrew Hall 142 | |
| Saturday, 24 June | |||
| Time | Event | Location | |
| 8:00-8:30 AM | Breakfast | Andrew Hall 142 | |
| 8:30-9:45 AM | Session ONE: Nature in the City | Richard W. Judd, “Boston’s Backyard Nature: From Vacant Lot to Urban Wild”; Claire Campbell, “Tidewater Aligned: Halifax, Nova Scotia” | Andrew Hall 142 |
| 9:45-10:00 AM | Refreshment Break | Andrew Hall 142 | |
| 10:00-11:15 AM | Session TWO: Historical Methods | Matthew McKenzie, “Tapping the Past: Experience and Insight in Environmental History Research”; Sean Cox, Toni MacRae, Sasha Mullally, Yun Zhang, “Lockdowns and Leisure: Aerial Capture of COVID-19 Recreational Spaces in Fredericton, New Brunswick” | Andrew Hall 142 |
| 11:15 AM-12:15 PM | Lunch (provided) | Andrew Hall 142 | |
| 12:15 PM – c. 6:00 PM | Session THREE: Field Trip | Bus Tour to Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation and Prince Edward Island National Park – Greenwich | Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation, St. Peter’s Bay, and Greenwich Annex to PEI National Park, Greenwich |
| 6:00 PM onward | Optional Dinner (planned informally) | To be determined. | |
| Sunday, 25 June | |||
| Time | Event | Location | |
| 8:00-8:30 AM | Breakfast | Andrew Hall 142 | |
| 8:30-10:00 AM | Session FOUR: Space, Time, and Transportation in a Borderland | Emma Schroeder, “The road to – where?”: International Debates Over Highway Construction in Maine in the 1960s and 1970s”; Jack Bouchard, “Terra Nova Incognita: Writing early Canadian history across time and space”; Matthew Hatvany, “Anticosti: The Shaping of a Natural Island” | Andrew Hall 142 |
| 10:00-10:15 AM | Refreshment Break | Andrew Hall 142 | |
| 10:15-11:30 AM | Session FIVE: Born to Be Wild? Nature in the Backyard | Caroline Abbott, “The Coyotes of Crowell Road”; Edward MacDonald, “Camping in the Backyard: Nature and Provincial Parks on Prince Edward Island, 1945—2000” | Andrew Hall 142 |
| 11:30 AM – to curfew | Session SIX: Next, Please! The Way Forward | Andrew Hall 142 |