Environmental History
The program of History and Philosophy of Science within The School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry is a major Australian centre for teaching and research in Ecological and Environmental History.
Associate Professor Don Garden and Professor Janet McCalman offer a range of undergraduate subjects which examine the relationship between humans and the natural environment across human history.
 |
|---|
These subjects include:
The ecological history of humankind focuses on the interplay, from prehistoric times to the present day, between environment, disease ecology, food supplies, population and human culture. This is the history of human beings in competition with their environment and with other organisms, an exploration of the ways in which we have shaped the diseases which have afflicted us and the way in which health and disease have shaped societies.
- 136-035 A History of Nature
Through a series of case studies, this 'meta-history' course traces changes in Western scientific and environmental knowledge and thought about 'Nature' over the last 500 years. These changes fed into new forms of understanding in such areas as taxonomy. geography, evolutionary biology, geology, and ecology, and significantly challenged traditional religious explanations and understandings of the relationship between humans and the non-human world.
 |
|---|
Postgraduate supervision is offered in a wide range of aspects of ecological and environmental history, with a particular focus on Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.