Past events

Events sponsored by the Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies:

  • “Explosive Volcanism, Nile Failure, and Political Instability in Ptolemaic Egypt (305-30 BCE)”

    Friday 20 February, 2026 4:15 p.m, Room SO3, Swallowgate
    Speaker: Francis Ludlow (Trinity College Dublin)

    CAES Annual Lecture


    “Rome at its core: a new history of early Rome and its republic”

    21 November 2025
    Speaker: Andrea Brock (St Andrews)

    Watch on YouTube


  • “Ovid’s ecological disasters: scalar zoom and the challenges of narrative time”

    Annual Lecture, 21 March 2025
    Speaker: Alison Sharrock (Manchester)

    Hybrid event


    “St Theodore, Euchaïta and Anatolia, c. 500-1000 CE. Landscape, climate and the survival of an empire”

    Research seminar, 29 November 2024
    Speaker: John Haldon

    Hybrid event


    “Pre-modern environmental history and its contemporary relevance”

    Workshop, 6 December 2024
    School I, St Salvator’s Quad, St Andrews

    A workshop on the contemporary relevance of pre-modern environmental history with a focus on the potential policy implications of this research. Andy Dugmore (Edinburgh), Rowan Jackson (Edinburgh), and John Haldon (Princeton) will all address this topic from different perspectives.

    This event is open to anyone interested in attending.
    Please note: only Haldon’s keynote presentation will be streamed online via Teams.

    Programme

    • 13:00-13:10 – Introduction
    • 13:10-14:30 – Panel with presentations and discussion by Andy Dugmore and Rowan Jackson
    • 14:30-14:45 – Break
    • 14:45-16:00 – John Haldon keynote presentation and discussion (hybrid)

  • “Trees and the anthropocene in Greek and Roman antiquity”

    Workshop, 15 September 2023

    Hybrid event: in person in School II, St Salvator’s quad, St Andrews, and online via MS Teams

    Programme and selected recorded talks

    09.15 – 09.30: Introduction

    09.30 – 10.15: Emma Bentley: ‘Dionysus Dendritês: Wood and Carpentry in Greek Tragedy

    10.15 – 11:00: Kresimir Vukovic: ‘Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome: Resilience, Deforestation, Interpretations

    11:00 – 11.30: Coffee

    11.30 – 12.15: Andrew Fox: ‘The Death Grove at the Heart of Seneca’s Thyestes

    12.15 – 13.00: Leila Williamson: ‘Strawberry-tree solastalgia: following the arbutus in Vergil, Rutilius, and Ennodius

    13.00 – 14.00: Lunch

    14.00 – 14.45: Emily Kneebone: ‘Deforestation in imperial Greek epic

    14.45 – 15.30: Matthew Westermayer: Intervention and Mixture: Grafted Trees and Baptismal Practice on Mt. Nebo

    16.15 – 17.45: Edith Hall: ‘Achilles in green: reading the Iliad in the 21st century
    (Annual lecture of the Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies)

    Subscribe to the CAES mailing list for updates about the event, and to get the Teams meeting link.


    “Uninvited guests, unexpected passengers: Insects and past environments in the Eastern Mediterranean”

    Research seminar, 3 November 2023
    Speaker: Eva Panagiotakopulu


    “Imagining the earth in ancient Greek and Roman literature: human-environment relations in Lucian’s True Stories

    Research seminar, 21 February 2024
    Speaker: Jason König


    Fluid Horizons: Charting Ancient Environmental History and Blue Humanities

    Workshop, 7 May 2024, London

    View programme and register Watch recording


    Postgraduate Research Showcase

    9 May 2024
    Swallowgate 11, School of Classics, St Andrews

    Programme

    12.00 Welcome and introduction to CAES

    (Sian Lewis, Jason Konig)

    12.15 – 1.00 Spotlight talks

    • Stefano Carlo Sala (Classics): “Archaic Past and Augustan Present in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Depiction of Rome’s Cityscape”.
    • Florence Rogers (Classics): “Representations of Fog in Latin Literature”.
    • Ronnais Lloyd (Classics): “Sensory Approaches to the Palaeoenvironment in Pompeii”.
    • Sally Mubarak (Classics): “Landscapes of Trauma: reevaluating battlescapes in the historiography of the Roman Republic”.

    1.00 – 2.00 Lunch

    2.00 – 3.15 Spotlight talks

    • Max Dyer (Classics): “Winding and Twisted: connections across Mount Helikon”.
    • Frances Bickerstaff (Medieval History): “Monasticism on a Maritime Frontier: Paisley Abbey and its landscape context, c. 1150-1300”.
    • Gwenffrewi Morgan (Medieval History): “Periodising Environmentally in High-Medieval Past-Writing: time, environment, and agency”.
    • Rowan Munnery (Classics): “Stuck in the Middle: the Mediterranean maritime cultural landscape’s Sicilian Divide”.
    • Dimitar Krastev (Classics): “The Role of Climate Change in Migration”.
    • William Laird (Classics): “Reconstructing Experiences of Devastation and Resilience in Italian Communities during the Second Punic War”.

    3.15 – 3.30 Coffee break

    3.30 – 4.00 CAES research projects overview and future plans

    (Andrea Brock, Ruben Post, Sian Lewis)

    Enquiries

    Please contact Jason König, [email protected] or Sian Lewis, [email protected].


    Past Perspectives: How can premodern environmental research be made useful in the climate emergency?

    Impact Workshop, Monday May 27, 2024
    Funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh

    Read event report by
    Florence Rogers and Max Dyer

    The human species has forever been adapting to dynamic environmental conditions. The premodern world provides a laboratory of various experiments in human-environment interactions: a rich history of successes and failures, acute and chronic pressures, false-starts and path dependencies, resilience and vulnerabilities—all operating on a global scale over the longue durée. How should we collate, compare, and engage critically with this past record in order to drive change in the modern climate crisis?

    Part I: Showcasing Premodern Environmental Studies

    1. How did premodern societies react to experiences of environmental change?
    2. How do societies react to ecological shocks, both acute and chronic?
    3. How/why have societies changed in response to ecological pressures throughout History?
    4. In what ways do a society’s socio-economic inequalities intersect with environmental vulnerabilities?
    5. What factors create resiliency and/or vulnerabilities in societies?

    Part II: Brainstorming Applications of Premodern Environmental Studies

    1. What are the strengths and limitations of the communication of climate change science to popular audiences?
    2. What is the value and application of comparative case studies in sustainability education and policy making?
    3. How can narratives from the premodern world supplement current practice and strategy?
    4. How do historical narratives influence identity and drive behaviour/cultural change?
    5. How can representations of premodern human-environment relations in literature and art act as a resource for creative responses to current crises?

    Programme

    Keynote presentations were hybrid sessions which were recorded, while all other events were in person only (in the Physics Building at the University of St Andrews). Registration to attend in person can be directed to [email protected]. Subscribe to the CAES mailing list to receive the Teams link for remote attendance.

    9:15-9:35 – Welcome and Presentation 1

    Andrea Brock (St Andrews Classics): Flood Risk and Response in the City of Rome

    9:35-9:55 – Presentation 2

    Liz Macwhirter (Glasgow): Theopoetics: Giving voice to Julian of Norwich and trauma spirituality in the climate crisis

    9:55-10:15 – Presentation 3

    Justine Firnhaber-Baker (St Andrews History): Into the Woods: Negotiating Landscape and Power in Post-Plague France

    10:15-10:35 – Presentation 4

    Althea Davies (St Andrews Geography & Sustainable Development): Where’s the climate story? Scottish woodlands past and future

    10:35-11:00 – Coffee break

    11:00-11:20 – Presentation 5

    Rowan Jackson (Edinburgh): Information, Perception and Learning: Intergenerational adaptation to environmental change in Medieval Greenland

    11:20-11:40 – Presentation 6

    Lilah Grace Canevaro (Edinburgh): The Environment and the Subaltern: focusing on the margins in Greek literature

    11:40-12:00 – Presentation 7

    Rhyne King (St Andrews Classics): Sustainable Water Management: Qanats in the Ancient Persian Empire

    12:00-1:00 – Keynote 1

    Christopher Schliephake (Augsburg): Ecological wisdom’, cultural sustainability and the reception of ancient texts (the example of Homer’s Odyssey)

    1:00-2:00 – Lunch Break

    2:00-2:45 – Discussion Panel 1

    Sian Lewis (St Andrews Classics), James Palmer (St Andrews History), and Richard Oram (Stirling) with responses to the morning presentations, considering opportunities for capitalizing on popular fascination with the ancient/premodern world

    2:45-3:15 – Coffee Break

    3:15-4:00 – Discussion Panel 2

    James Rae (St Andrews Earth & Environmental Science), Robert Wilson (St Andrews Earth & Environmental Science), and Nicki Whitehouse (Glasgow) on the strengths and limits of the popular reception of climate change science

    4:00-5:00 – Keynote 2

    Rebecca Hardin (Michigan): Creating, curating and comparing case studies of the premodern to inform the present


  • “Godscapes: Ritual, Belief and the Natural World in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond”

    Conference, 27 June – 1 July 2023, St Andrews

    Sponsored by the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions and the School of Classics, St. Andrews

    View program (pdf)


    New Approaches to the History of Plague in Late Antiquity

    Workshop: Friday 3 February 2023
    School 2, St Salvator’s Quad, University of St Andrews

    Hosted by the Centre for Ancient Environmental Studies and the Centre for Late Antique Studies

    This was a hybrid event.


    “Platonic Zoology”

    Research seminar, Friday 14 October, 4pm (online)
    Speaker: Dimitri El-Murr


    “Quintus’ Abject Monuments”

    Research seminar, Friday 18 November, 4pm (online)
    Speaker: William Brockliss



Events sponsored by the Centre for Landscape Studies :

  • 8 November 2019: ‘Mount Olympus: The archaeology and imagination of a mountain’ – Achim Lichtenberger (Münster)
    Hosted by the Centre for Landscape Studies.

    31 August-1 September 2020Workshop on ‘Defining Late Antique Space’
    co-hosted by the Centre for Landscape Studies and Centre for Late Antique Studies

  • 4-5 December 2018:  ‘Mountains in the Classical Tradition’
    Workshop hosted by the Centre for Landscape Studies.

    6 December 2018: ‘Making an Impression: Pietro Bembo, Mount Etna, and the Venetian Printing Press’, Gareth Williams (University of Columbia).
    Public lecture co-hosted by the Centre for Landscape Studies and Centre for Late Antique Studies

    5 March 2019: ‘Love, Hatred, and Madness: The Emotional Lives of the Capitolium’, Jason Moralee (Massachusetts).
    Co-hosted by the Centre for Late Antique Studies and the Centre for Landscape Studies.

    15 March 2019: ‘Rome is not a space on a map. Intersections and thresholds within the unmapped historical landscape of place’, Elena Isayev (Exeter).
    Centre for Landscape Studies Annual Lecture.

  • 8 November 2017: “Mythic Topographies in the Periegesis of Pausanias”, Professor Bill Hutton (William & Mary)
    This lecture was part of the academic exchange between the University of St Andrews and the College of William and Mary, stemming from the BA International Honours degree programme.

    Wednesday 15 November 2017: Alistair Moffat with The Hidden Ways in St Andrews

    16-17 November 2017: Cultivating Perspectives on Landscape
    Conference organised by Chloe Bray, Anahit Behrooz, Laura Donkers

    17 November2017: ‘Lively Nature’, Dr Katharine Earnshaw (Exeter).
    Annual Lecture of the Centre for Landscape studies

    11-14 July 2018: Approaching Landscape, panel at the 11th Celtic Conference in Classics. Read more details and a full panel report .

    External events

    Thursday 9 November 2017: Into the Mountain: A Life of Nan Shepherd in St Andrews

  • 29-30 April, 17 June – 18 September 2016: Exhibition, ‘Through a glass darkly: perceptions of artefact, art and context: exhibition and events’,  (MUSA Learning Loft) (Leventis Funded)

    18 November2016: ‘Landscape approaches and settlement archaeology in post-Roman central Greece’, Dr Athanasios Vionis, Associate Professor, University of Cyprus.
    Inaugural Lecture of the Centre for Landscape studies

    25-27 May 2017: ‘Landscapes of Movement’
    Organised by Rebecca Sweetman & Erica Morais Angliker.

    8-9 June 2017: ‘Mountains in Antiquity’
    Organised by Jason König and Nikoletta Manioti.

    External events

    22 November 2016: Screening of Pathfinder (1987) followed by panel discussion.

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