Call for Papers

"The Place of Nature in the City in Twentieth-Century Europe and North
America"

Conference sponsored by the German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.

December 1-3, 2005, in Washington, D.C.

Conveners:
Dorothee Brantz (GHI, University at Buffalo, SUNY)
Sonja Dümpelmann (GHI)
Christof Mauch (GHI)
Jennifer Price (Writer, Los Angeles)

This conference wants to provide an interdisciplinary forum to discuss the
changing relationship of cities and nature in twentieth-century Europe and
North America. Throughout the centuries, cities have often been conceived in
opposition to nature. In the twentieth century, earlier perceptions of the
city as opposed to nature gave way to new concepts that envisioned the city
and nature as complementing each other. Several attempts to recapture nature
and reintegrate the city and the countryside throughout the twentieth
century have led to new types of urban landscapes. One of the overarching
questions of our conference is how cultural and national peculiarities have
influenced the place of nature in the city. We shall also ask how concepts
of "nature" changed over the course of the twentieth century as many
industrial cities were transformed into post-industrial landscapes. We will
discuss how nature has been integrated into urban design and how cities have
been engaged in the "renaturalization" of urban areas. What social,
cultural, and political values does nature represent in the city? How have
ideas of nature influenced land use patterns? How have discourses about
nature shaped the practice of urban planning and landscape architecture? How
have ideas about "urban nature" affected the understanding and daily use of
urban space?
We invite proposals from scholars in all disciplines who approach the
subject from a historical perspective. Preference will be given to papers
that focus on changing concepts of nature over time. We also specifically
encourage proposals for papers that compare the place of nature in different
urban cultures.

Please send a one-page proposal, a short cv, and a list of relevant
publications to Mrs. Bärbel Thomas at B.Thomasghi-dc.org (fax:
202-483-3430) by June 30, 2005.

The conference will take place at the German Historical Institute in
Washington, D.C., which will also cover the cost for travel and
accommodations of participants. Following the conference, we are planning to
publish a collection of the essays. The conference language is English.