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The Environment & Society Portal (www.environmentandsociety.org), an initiative of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (www.rachelcarsoncenter.de) in Munich, an institute funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research for the purpose of building humanities connections internationally, is a nonprofit education and research project that aims to make environmental humanities materials freely and openly accessible. We have recently launched with a small but fascinating selection of digital multimedia and interpretive features. Our goal is to cultivate the spirit of exploration and serendipity that characterizes research in the humanities, allowing users to find—in a digital environment—unexpected results.
The Portal’s media-rich online exhibitions feature in-depth contextualization of archival documents. The first exhibition, “Promotion and Transformation of Landscapes along the CB&Q Railroad” (www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/railroad) by Eric Olmanson is already one of the Portal’s most popular features and will be soon joined by exhibitions on the international impact of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; on diverse meanings of “wilderness”; on “Hazardous Chemicals”; and another on Alfred Wegener’s polar expeditions as described in his previously unpublished diaries.
We are now on the outlook for proposals for further exhibitions to be published in the 2013-2014 biennium. Format and size of the exhibitions is flexible, but they should be based upon an existing or expressly created collection of media and documents (20-100 images, video/audio files, primary sources) and include an interpretive, not necessarily linear, hypertext (2000-15000 words), as well as a bibliography and metadata (keywords and spatial/temporal locations).
Proposals for innovative ideas about how to represent the environmental humanities online are more than welcome and applicants are encouraged to submit geographically and/or chronologically comparative projects and joint projects with libraries, archives and museums.
Proposed exhibitions should fit in one of the following general themes:
- Natural Disasters and Cultures of Risk
- Transformation of Landscapes
- Resource Use and Conservation
- Environmental Ethics, Politics, and Movements
Costs for selected exhibition ideas will be subsidized by the Rachel Carson Center with a grant ranging between 5.000 and 20.000 Euro.
What should applicants be prepared to pay for with the grant?
- Production costs (e.g. research and writing);
- Digitisation costs;
- Development and design of particular features (e.g. custom maps, animations, sound recordings);
- Clearing of copyright issues.
Which costs will the Rachel Carson Center cover in addition to the grant?
- Implementation into the Environment & Society Portal, including web-design;
- Final copy-editing.
What material is needed for an application?
- A project outline (max 5 pages), including a description of the media to be used, its provenance and copyright status;
- A time schedule;
- A preliminary budget;
- CV(s) of the applicant(s);
- Support letter(s) from archive(s) holding the relevant material (optional).
Review of proposals will start on 15 July 2012. For full consideration it is advisable to submit applications by that date.
For submissions and further information please email portal@carsoncenter.lmu.de
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