Work to preserve testimonies of a people and their culture is recognized as an 鈥渙utstanding model of applied environmental history scholarship.鈥�
Several 人妻少妇专区 historians are being honored for their work in chronicling the history of climate change in , a mountain region in the far north of India.
, an associate professor of history and gender, sexuality, and women鈥檚 studies who serves as the associate academic director of the University鈥檚 , together with , a professor of history, have been awarded the 2021 by the for their project 鈥�.鈥� , who earned his PhD in history from the University in 2020, is also part of the prize-winning team and the designer of an that the group is in the process of building to make their research accessible to the public.
More about 鈥淐limate Witness: Voices from Ladakh鈥�
- Follow the team鈥檚 journey through their .
- Read about the project鈥檚 origins.
The society鈥檚 award is presented every two years to an environmental history project. 鈥淰oices of Ladakh offers an outstanding model of applied environmental history scholarship for the public good,鈥� writes the awards committee in its citation. This project stands out for the 鈥渟cale and significance of its collaboration and potential impact.鈥� Through its website, the project 鈥渃ompiles and presents oral histories of climate change in the Himalayas, a region of the world relatively underrepresented in environmental history scholarship. Skillfully bridging the local and the global, the collected testimonies, archive, and website are the fruit of an international effort,鈥� the committee writes.
The website is geared toward researchers, climate activists, and local inhabitants alike and offers insight into the regional effects of climate change. Mountain environments are particularly susceptible to climate change, placing Ladakh鈥攚hich translates roughly to 鈥渓and of high passes鈥濃�攐n the front lines of global warming. 鈥淟ooking closely at the region,鈥� Weaver says, 鈥渁llows us to draw larger conclusions about the challenges of climate change at high altitude, and the ways in which mountain communities are both struggling with and successfully adapting to them.鈥�
Bakhmetyeva and Weaver have been researching climate change and local strategies of resilience and adaptation in the Himalayas since 2017. Based in Rochester鈥檚 , they are part of a larger collaborative project that also includes , a Rochester associate professor in the undergraduate public health program, and community-partners from the , and the in Leh, the principal town of the Union Territory of Ladakh.
Over the course of two summers, in 2018 and 2017 respectively, the team collected and recorded a wide array of local testimonies in this high trans-Himalayan land. Last year鈥檚 research trip to Ladakh, however, was abruptly cut short: Weaver had to head back to the United States within just three days of touching down in Leh due to the rapidly spreading pandemic.
