LSU Geographer Receives Rachel Carson Center Fellowship

Craig Colten, professor emeritus of geography, has received a Landhaus Fellowship from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany.  The program will assemble scholars from around the world in 2022-2023.

The fellowship will allow them to spend time in residence, working on a major research project and participating in seminars, colloquia, reading groups, and informal discussions.  Fellows will be housed a the newly renovated historic house on the Herrmannsdorfer organic farm outside Munich.

Colten observed that, “this is a highly competitive program and brings together scholars of  all ages and backgrounds that have research agendas in the area of human-environment interaction. I’m extremely fortunate to be selected to participate in this exciting gathering.”  

The Rachel Carson Center has been the leading center for environmental history in Europe for well over a decade and is expanding its scope to encompass environmental humanities.  Colten noted that he has attended Center functions in the past, and they have proven to be highly stimulating and have opened doors to international opportunities in China and Brazil, as well as Europe.

His research will seek answers to fundamental questions about the difficult decisions coastal communities will  have to make with sea level rise and how they will act to preserve important landscapes in the places they abandon and what they will try to reproduce in their new homes.  He will trace the process of town abandonment in US,  in Europe, and China as a way to identify how past societies dealt with forced displacement for a variety of reasons and how they made decisions about valued landscapes.

View the Fellowship Roster here.

Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten Organic Farm Near Munich