About the course
The earth has transformed in fundamental ways over the course of human evolution. ‘Niche construction’ is a term used to describe actions an organism takes to alter its environment to meet its subsistence and reproductive needs. Often, niche-constructing activities impact other species as well, such as when beavers build dams that create pools of water the benefit fish who thrive on still water (and hurt fish who thrive on fast-moving water). Modern ecologists tend to view human niche construction as more impactful to other organisms relative to the effects brought about by other species, since the scale and scope of human settlement spans the globe and involves extensive forms of landscape clearance and pollution.
It is tempting to think that the impacts of human niche construction are unique to the post-Industrial era, but recent research has shown that measurable impacts to earth’s biosphere and atmosphere can be traced back at least 3000 years, tied to the introduction of agriculture or even occurring during the Pleistocene. However, the visibility of human impacts can be difficult to assess in the archaeological record. Since they are undoubtedly less than or overprinted by those wrought by modern industrial technology, the view of the evolution of human niche-constructing activities may be selectively biased regionally and temporally. Modern policy experts even question the relevance of such evidence to mitigating global climate change or large-scale land cover change (see discussion in Richer et al. 2019).
This seminar asks the following questions as points of departure:
- Is the Anthropocene a real thing? Should it be a geologic epoch, or maybe an event as discussed in Gibbard et al. (2022)?
- Is the Anthropocene concept relevant for archaeological inquiry?
- Are there many anthropocenes as has been proposed by Ruddiman (2018) or are humans just another (albeit large) brick in the wall of earth’s ecology?
- When and where are human impacts to earth’s biodiversity or atmospheric systems vis-à-vis niche construction measurable in the archaeological record?
- Are discussions about past forms of human niche construction relevant to mitigating the impacts of global change in the 21st century?
Relevant sub-topics are:
- Is disciplinary separation between palaeoecology and ecology helpful or necessary to understand biodiversity?
- Is there a real divide between nature and culture (Greeves 1989)?
- What tools do archaeologists have in our kits to engage meaningfully in (palaeo)ecological research? I.e., how do we study material remains in human-focused ecology?
- How do notions of ‘regime change’ or ‘threshold crossing’ relate to the evolution of earth’s (human) ecology? How do we judge the scale of the impacts?
Lecturers
|
|
|
|
University of Oslo |
University of Gothenburg |
University of Milan |
Course work
The course will comprise both seminars and lectures. Prior to the course, each PhD Fellow will prepare a paper (10 pages, Times New Roman 12, spacing 1,5) addressing their research project in relation to the course theme and reading lists. All the papers will be pre-circulated within the group.
During the course, each paper will be allotted approximately 45 minutes, beginning with a 15-minute summary and presentation by the paper author. Another PhD Fellow, assigned beforehand, will serve as a discussant and provide comments for roughly 10 minutes. Following this, the assigned discussant will facilitate and chair an open discussion on the paper for approximately 20 minutes.
The participating lecturers will each deliver a lecture during the course and also actively engage in discussions of the PhD Fellow's submitted papers. The seminar days will be thoughtfully structured to provide sufficient time for stimulating debates, networking opportunities, and a fieldt trip to a destination pertinent to the course topic.
Paper submission deadline: 2nd October 2023
Credits
5 ECTS
Registration and deadlines
Registration deadline: 1st August 2023
10 participants will be accepted for the course after the deadline.
Location, Travel, and Costs
The Graduate School will finance and arrange accommodation, a welcome dinner, and supply lunch during the course week for all participating PhD candidates who are part of the Dialogues With the Past Network. Two and two PhD students will be accomodated in twin rooms.
The PhD candidates will have to arrange and finance travel to and within Athens as well as dinners during the course week (except for the welcome dinner). If you are in the DIALPAST network and do not have travel funding to cover these costs, please get in touch with oliver.reiersen@iakh.uio.no.