York History professor delivers keynote lecture at Canadian History and Environmental Symposium
David Moon delivers keynote lecture at Canadian History and Environmental Symposium.
On 31 May, Professor David Moon of the Department of History delivered a keynote lecture entitled ‘The Steppes of North America: The Development of Agriculture on the Grasslands of Canada, the United States, Russia and Ukraine,’ at the Canadian History and Environmental Summer Symposium.
Running from 31 May - 2 June 2018, the symposium was organized by environmental historians at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, in association with the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). The annual summer symposium brings together a diverse range of scholars interested in the history of the relationship between people and the environment, and this year's theme was ‘Prairie Landscapes and Environmental Change in the Twentieth Century.’
As is customary among environmental historians, the symposium included indoor activities, such as lectures, papers, discussion, and also outside activities, both of which greatly enhanced participants’ understanding of the settlement and environmental history of the prairies.
The symposium explored with expert guides and members of the local communities: a Prayer Home of the Doukhobor community (a religious sect originally from Russia); a site associated with the Métis community; an experimental farm; a former forestry nursery; and the Gene bank (or seed bank) of the Canadian Federal Plant Gene Resources.