RULING CLIMATE
The Theory and Practice of Environmental Governmentality
in the Early Modern Period (1500-1800)
University of Warwick, Saturday 16th May 2015
Provisional Programme
9.30 – 09.55
Registration, tea and coffee (Graduate Space, 4th Floor, Humanities)
9.55 – 10.00
Welcome and opening address (H545, 5th Floor, Humanities)
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10.00 – 10.45 Keynote address: Franz Mauelshagen (KWI Essen and Rachel Carson Center, Munich),
The Birth of Climatology from the Spirit of the “Esprit des lois”
10.45 – 11.00 Discussion
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11.00 – 11.15 Tea and coffee (Graduate Space)
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SESSION 1:
Between Old and New: Thinking Environmental Influence in the Early Modern Period
Chair: TBC
11.15 – 11.35 Richard Spavin (Queen’s University Belfast), Jean Bodin and the idea of “anachorism”
11.35 – 11.55 Michael Hill (Georgetown University), The Tropics in Seventeenth-Century English
Libraries
11.55 – 12.15 William Cavert (The University of St. Thomas), Winter and Discontent in Early Modern
England
12.15 – 12.35 Sundar Henny (University of Basel), The temperature of Homer’s brain: Climate and
genius in eighteenth century anthropology
12.35 – 12.50 Discussion
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12.50 – 13.45 Lunch (Graduate Space)
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13.45 – 14.30 Keynote address: Rebecca Earle (History, University of Warwick), Climate, Travel and
Colonialism in the Early Modern World
14.30 – 14.45 Discussion
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14.45 – 15.00 Tea and coffee (Graduate Space)
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SESSION 2: The Empire of Climate: Environmental Management in the Early Modern Period
Chair: TBC
15.00 – 15.20 Raphaël Morera (Centre national de la recherche scientifique/Centre de Recherches
Historiques de l'Ouest), Marshes as microclimate. Governing with the environment in
Early Modern France
15.20 – 15.40 Leona Skelton (University of Bristol), ‘Tinkering with the River of Tine’: Attempts to
Control the Climate’s Impact on the River Tyne’s Flow, Functions and Form, 1530-1800
15.40 – 16.00 Anthony Carlson (School of Advanced Military Studies), “A Diversity of Latitudes and
Climates”: Soggy North America and the Climate Crisis of the 1790s
16.00 – 16.20 Arianne Urus (New York University), Salty Sea Air and the Strength of Empires: From
Fishermen to Sailors in the Eighteenth-Century North Atlantic
16.20 – 16.35 Discussion
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16.35 – 16.45 Comfort break
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16.45 – 17.30 Roundtable (led by Dr David Beck TBC) and closing remarks
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17.30 – 18.30 Wine reception and buffet (Graduate Space)
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With thanks to The British Society for the History of Science and the
Research Student Skills Programme (Warwick) for their generous
support