CALL FOR PAPERS
“NEW PERSPECTIVES IN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY”
Yale University
Saturday, February 28, 2026
Abstract Submission Deadline: November 21, 2025
Yale Environmental History invites graduate students and early career practitioners in History and related fields to propose papers for our Spring 2026 “New Perspectives in Environmental History” conference, to be held on Saturday, February 28, 2026.
We invite papers that address environmental history in its broadest sense, whether dealing with political economy, society and culture, intellectual debates, science and technology, microorganisms and disease, or policy and planning, to only name a few topics. Paper proposals from any region or time period are welcome. We are particularly eager to include comparative and non-U.S. perspectives on environmental history.
The conference format is based on successful northeast regional conferences held at Yale in recent years. The conference will consist of three moderated panel sessions featuring presentations based on papers circulated in advance to panel commentators and conference attendees. A faculty panel featuring Bathsheba Demuth (Brown University), Arunabh Ghosh (Harvard University), and Laura J. Martin (Williams College) will conclude the day with a discussion of innovative approaches to environmental history.
Yale Conveners include Yale doctoral students Henry Jacob and Xinyue Zhang and Paul Sabin, Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History.
For more information on past conferences, including agendas and paper abstracts, visit
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: Abstract submissions should be in the form of a SINGLE
document in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format, and must include the following: (1)
your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information; (2) a 250-word abstract; (3) a
one-page C.V.
Submissions must be emailed to
environmentalhistory@yale.edu by
November 21, 2025.
Please include your name and paper title in the filename of your submission.
Please do not submit panel proposals. Individual papers will be grouped into panels by the conference organizers.
Accepted presenters will be notified by December 10, 2025, and asked to submit their papers for circulation to attendees and commentators by February 14, 2026.
Graduate students enrolled in doctoral programs in New England, New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania are particularly encouraged to submit proposals.
Graduate students and postdocs from outside this region are welcome to submit proposals, though preference may be given to northeastern institutions as part of our regional community-building efforts.
