LSU Geographer Receives Rachel Carson Center Fellowship

The fellowship will allow them to spend time in residence, working on a major research project and participating in seminars, colloquia, reading groups and informal discussions.  Fellows will be housed at the newly renovated historic house on the Herrmannsdorfer organic farm outside Munich.  

“This is a highly competitive program and brings together scholars of all ages and backgrounds that have research agendas in the area of human-environment interaction. I’m extremely fortunate to be selected to participate in this exciting gathering,” Colten said.  

The Rachel Carson Center has been the leading center for environmental history in Europe for more than a decade and is expanding its scope to encompass environmental humanities. Colten noted that he has attended center functions in the past, and they have proven to be highly stimulating and have opened doors to international opportunities in China and Brazil, as well as Europe.

His research will seek answers to fundamental questions about the difficult decisions coastal communities will have to make amidst sea level rise; how they will act to preserve important landscapes in the places they abandon; and what they will try to reproduce in their new homes. He will trace the process of town abandonment in the U.S., in Europe and China as a way to identify how past societies dealt with forced displacement for a variety of reasons and how they made decisions about valued landscapes.

 

Additional Information:

Rachel Carson Center Fellowship Roster: https://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/fellows/carson_fellows_16-17/index.html

 

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