Review 2024
Our Guests
Publications
Conferences, events and talks
2024 began with a highlight! The first Science Slam took place at the German Mining Museum in January.
The presentations by Ronja Lau, Mitja Musberg, Mariko Jacoby, Annika Lüttmann and Nicolas Schimerl told entertaining stories about prehistoric clothing, stones in Sardinia, the samurai in Japan, what pizza has to do with the Varus and how to document underground mines. After each presentation, the audience was given the opportunity to rate them with points between 1 and 10, and chose Nicolas Schimerl as the winner of the evening with 92 out of 100 points.
Throughout the year, we were accompanied by various presentations in a colloquium and workshops organised by the PIs. In the first half of the year, the PIs focussed on issues relating to mining and the appropriation of raw materials. In the summer, ReForm Post Doc Andreas Angourakis and Elefteria Paliou organised a conference on ‘Advances in modelling past human ecosystems’ at the University of Cologne. The workshop provided a space for researchers to present on a variety of cutting-edge archaeological computer models in the context of socio-ecological research and to discuss the integration of insights, data and participatory engagement of stewards of traditional and indigenous ecological knowledge.
In der zweiten Jahreshälfte veranstalteten Tina Asmussen und Mariko Jakobi jeweils einen Workshop, während gleichzeitig die Vorbereitungen für unsere große Abschlusstagung “Interweaving Ressources” begannen, die für den März 2025 geplant wird.
Der Workshop “Natural Resources and Human Societies in East and West: Early Modern and Modern Environmental Histories from Japan and Germany” von Mariko Jakobi brachte Wissenschaftler:innen aus Deutschland und Japan zusammen, die sich mit der Umweltgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit und der Moderne befassen und ermöglichte so die Diskussion und den Gedankenaustausch über neue Ansätze in der Umweltgeschichte zur Erforschung der natürlichen Ressourcen.
Ähnlich angeregt wurde auch in Tina Asmussens Veranstaltung “Geschichte, Kultur und nachhaltige Entwicklung von Bergbau- und anderen Kulturlandschaften”, die Teil des Zukunftsdialogs des Leibniz-Forschungsnetzwerks Wissen für Nachhaltige Entwicklung war. Zentrale Diskussionsthemen waren die langfristigen Umweltauswirkungen von industriellen Tätigkeiten und die Problematik von Sanierungs- oder Umnutzungsprojekten vor dem Hintergrund von Natur- und Denkmalschutz. Zudem wurde die Rolle der historischen Forschung und kultureller Beiträge bei der Gestaltung nachhaltiger Entwicklungsstrategien in Bergbaufolgelandschaften und weiteren Kulturlandschaften untersucht.
Außerdem war ReForm gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften der Ruhr-Universität Gastgeber für die Tagung des Nordwestdeutschen Verbands für Altertumsforschung.
In the second half of the year, Tina Asmussen and Mariko Jakobi each organised a workshop, while at the same time preparations began for our major final conference ‘Interweaving Resources’, which is planned for March 2025.
Mariko Jakobi’s workshop ‘Natural Resources and Human Societies in East and West: Early Modern and Modern Environmental Histories from Japan and Germany’ brought together scholars from Germany and Japan working on early modern and modern environmental history, thus facilitating discussion and exchange of ideas on new approaches in environmental history to the study of natural resources.
Tina Asmussen’s event ‘History, culture and sustainable development of mining and other cultural landscapes’, which was part of the Future Dialogue of the Leibniz Research Network Knowledge for Sustainable Development, was similarly stimulating. The main topics of discussion were the long-term environmental impact of industrial activities and the problems of redevelopment or conversion projects against the background of nature conservation and monument protection. The role of historical research and cultural contributions in the design of sustainable development strategies in post-mining landscapes and other cultural landscapes was also analysed.
ReForm also hosted the conference of the Northwest German Association for Archaeological Research together with the Institute for Archaeological Sciences at the Ruhr University.