Are you a graduate student interested in environmental history?
Do you worry about the size of your conference/workshop related carbon footprint?
Would you like to exchange ideas with other grad students and not feel bad about contributing to the various environmental issues related to burning fossil fuels to get from point A to point B?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions then the NiCHE New Scholars Group has just the thing for you! Place and Placelessness: A Virtual Environmental History Workshop for Graduate Students. It is an un-workshop in the sense you do not have to travel to participate – all you need is a reliable internet connection and Skype. That’s right folks, this is a workshop you can go to in your underwear and no one would be the wiser…the organizers in no way endorse that behaviour at regular workshops, it would make for really awkward networking.

The Call for Participants is now available from the workshop website. There you will also find a link to register as a participant or discussant and all sorts of other handy information and pretty pictures.

Here are the important dates for anyone thinking Place and Placelessness sounds like a good time.
CFP Deadline – 16 July 2010
Schedule Announced – 31 August 2010
Workshop Dates – 1 & 2 October 2010

* This is a shameless plug because I’m co-organizing this experiment and would really like to see it go well and start to break the mould for conferences and workshops. We have the technology to meet and exchange ideas without leaving home so why aren’t more academics putting that technology to use!?