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10 Dec 2021

Publishing workshop conducted on storying climes of the Himalaya, Andes, and Artic: anthropogenic water bodies, multispecies vulnerability, and sustainable living

 

Royal Thimphu College, affiliated to Royal University of Bhutan, co-hosted a virtual six-day long publishing workshop (9–14 October 2021) titled “Storying climes of the Himalaya, Andes, and the Arctic: Anthropogenic water bodies, multispecies vulnerability, and sustainable living”. The Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) organized the workshop in partnership with My Climate Risk, a lighthouse activity of World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and the Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities (HCEN). Royal Thimphu College, Global South Studies Center, and Yunnan University co-hosted the event. It was convened by Dan Smyer Yü (Yunnan University), Jelle J.P. Wouters (Royal Thimphu College), and Arupjyoti Saikia (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati).

The conceptual arc of this workshop was “clime” or place-specific manifestation of climate patterns and changes, which implies the mutual embodiment of climate and place. The geographical arc was the Himalaya, the Andes, and the Arctic. Geographically apart from one another, these regions play a critical role in the hydrological cycle of the Earth with their water in both solid and liquid forms as well as in shaping multispecies habitats and cultural heritages within the biospheres fed by their waters. At the same time, they are comparably experiencing risks and degradations from global climate change, such as melting ice, species extinction, and radical transformations of ecosystems and livelihoods.

Presenters included eminent academicians and researchers from around the world such as Sunil Amrith (Yale University), Karsten Paerregaard (University of Gothenburg), Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen (Aalborg University), and Ted Shepherd (University of Reading), joining others in conveying narratives of climes from all three poles over six thematic sessions.

The one-of-a-kind workshop bringing together the key cryosphere regions of the world (the “three poles”) will lead to a published volume through the efforts of the active research-teaching community of the Himalayan University Consortium and its Thematic Working Group on Trans-Himalayan Environmental Humanities (TWG THEH).