This autumn, the Centre for Environmental Humanities (CEH) at Aarhus University will host Saving European Nature: Longing for Landscapes Past, a virtual seminar series considering the affective and historical dimensions of different modes of contemporary conservation in Europe. Through three seminars, it will explore ways in which nostalgic and emotional imaginings of past landscapes and human-animal relationships interact with perceptions of current ecological crisis to influence the programmes implemented in Europe in the attempt to “fix things”.

Drawing on recent conversations about affect and ecologies in the Environmental Humanities (EH), these talks will delve into both the clashes and the cooperation between scientific reasoning and emotional entanglements with landscapes in the making of conservation projects. Through engaging with ways in which people are trying to take action to save or preserve the environment in Europe, it asks open questions both about the place of science in EH and about the political role of EH researchers in the face of multiple environmental crises.

In the first seminar, The Probiotic Planet: Using Life to Manage Life, Jamie Lorimer will take us on a journey through rewilding at different scales – from inside the human body with hookworms and probiotics to landscape-level projects with wolves and beavers. It takes place on Tuesday 22 September at 14.30 CET. The second will take place on Tuesday 20 October, featuring Erica von Essen and Kieran O’Mahony on hunting, conservation and wild boar management in Europe today. The third seminar will delve into the global, colonial tendrils of European conservation projects, with visiting PhD student Franziska Dahlmeier presenting on botanic gardens as sites of multispecies care and affectivity as well as of colonial legacies and control; another guest speaker is to be confirmed.

To sign up to the seminars, which will be held on Zoom, please email ceh@cas.au.dk to receive an invitation containing the link for each event. Researchers, students and community members are all welcome. Events will be held in English.