Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies Institute of Commonwealth Studies University of London
in association with QANTAS
announces a major conference on

ECOLOGY AND EMPIRE:
The Environmental History of Settler Societies

at Australia House, The Strand, London WC2
19-20 September 1996

Ecology and Empire is a major international conference which aims to set the Australian environmental experience in a global and comparative context by looking at the expansion of Europe and the historical experience of other settler societies. In recent years scholars have begun to explore the biological dimensions of European imperialism, and to reveal the extent to which ecology and empire were partners. The conference will focus these new perspectives and will draw particularly on the historical experiences of Africa, Australia, North and Latin America and the Pacific.

Speakers and Provisional Topics:

Vets, viruses and environmentalism in the Cape Colony

William Beinart

University of Bristol and co-author of Environment and History: The taming of nature in the USA and South Africa

Nationhood and national parks: Comparative examples from the post-imperial experience.

Jane Carruthers

University of South Africa and author of Kruger National Park: A social and political history.

Universal science, local uses: Ecology, empire and environmentalism

Tom Dunlap

Texas A&M; University and author of Saving America's Wildlife.

The fate of empire in low energy ecosystems

Tim Flannery

The Australian Museum and author of The Future Eaters.

Ecology and Empire: Towards an Australian history of the world

Tom Griffiths

Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, University of London and author of Hunters and Collectors.

Mawson of the Antarctic: Flynn of the Inland. Progressive heroes on Australia's ecological frontiers

Brigid Hains

Monash University

The environmental history of settler societies: A reflection

David Lowenthal

University College London and author of The Past is a Foreign Country.

Empire and the ecological apocalypse

John MacKenzie

Lancaster University and author of the Empire of Nature.

Global developments and Latin American environments

Elinor Melville

York University and author of A Plague of Sheep

The Transvaal beef frontier: Environment, ideology and intent

Shaun Milton

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London

Enterprise and dependency: Water management in Australia

J M Powell

Monash University and author of An Historical Geography of Modern Australia: The Restive Fringe.

Frontiers of fire

Stephen J Pyne

Arizona State University West and author of Global Fire and Burning Bush.

Ecology: a science of empire?

Libby Robin

La Trobe University and the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, University of London

The nature of Australia

Eric Rolls

Author of They all ran wild and A million wild acres.

Ecology, imperialism and deforestation

Michael Williams

Oxford University and author of Americans and their Forests and The Making of the South Australian Landscape.

The conference will be introduced by a Literary Links evening the day before. On Wednesday 18 September, from 6.30, the celebrated australian environmental writer and poet, Eric rolls, will read from his work at Australia House.

Registration:
�60 for both days, �25 concession �25 for one day

To register please contact Ms Kirsten McIntyre email [email protected] or Ms Louise McSeveny, [email protected].

The organisers are Dr Tom Griffiths and Dr Libby Robin

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