Events
CAES CCHRI inaugural St Andrews Workshop
24 September, 3-6pm in Seminar Room 310, Irvine Building.
The Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies (CAES) is excited to announce that the Climate Change and History Research Initiative (CCHRI) has officially moved to the University of St Andrews, as has its founder, Professor John Haldon (emeritus, Princeton University, and honorary, University of St Andrews). Prof Haldon and CCHRI will be based in the School of Classics and affiliated with the St Andrews Global Research Centre for Changing Climates.
CCHRI is an interdisciplinary research initiative examining the relationship between shifting climates, environmental change, and Eurasian societies since the Bronze Age. CCHRI brings together historians, archaeologists, social scientists, and environmental scientists to investigate climate–society interactions and promote consilience, the integration of diverse forms of historical, archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and scientific evidence, to answer related questions. Its activities include collaborative research projects, colloquia, guest lectures, and training workshops introducing researchers to methods and evidence in the palaeosciences. CCHRI also explores how historical experiences of environmental stress and resilience can inform contemporary approaches to sustainability, risk, and adaptation in the face of varied environmental crises.
CAES and CCHRI will be co-hosting an inaugural St Andrews event on 24 September, 3-6pm in Irvine Building, Seminar Room 310. This event will be in-person only, though future events will be held in hybrid format.
Programme
3:00-3:30pm:
Opening comments from John Haldon and James Rae (head of the Changing Climates GRC).
3:30-4:00pm:
Andrea Burke on advances in the study of volcanism and climate change.
4:00-4:30pm:
Claudia Paparella on religious and cultural responses to environmental extremes in Republican Rome.
4:30-4:45pm: Break.
4:45-5:15pm:
Rowan Jackson on society and climate change in Greenland.
5:15-5:45pm:
David Patterson on the 4th-3rd c. BCE volcanic quiet period, climate, and Republican Rome.
5:45-6:00pm:
Closing thoughts and outline of future CCHRI plans at St Andrews.
Enquiries
Please address enquiries about the event to Ruben Post, [email protected]
“Lucian’s Icaromenippus as an Exercise in Scalar Literacy”
CAES annual lecture, Friday, 16 October 2026, at 4:15pm
Speaker: Anna Athanasopoulou (Ghent)
