Research seminars

Main Departmental seminar series

Main Departmental seminar series at the Department of Geography.

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Seminars in Cultural and Historical Geography

All seminars begin at 1pm and take place in the Hardy Building, Room 101 (unless otherwise stated), Department of Geography. All welcome!

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure - seminar series

• See also: Graduate Workshops in Economic and Social History

Research seminar series run by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure.
The support of the Trevelyan Fund (Faculty of History) is gratefully acknowledged.

The seminar meets on Tuesdays at 4pm.

Convenors: Leigh Shaw-Taylor (lmws2@cam.ac.uk), Romola Davenport (rjd23@cam.ac.uk) and Alice Reid (alice.reid@geog.cam.ac.uk).

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Tuesday 8th May 2018, 4.00pm - Alan Fernihough (Queen's University Belfast)

Population and Poverty in Pre-Famine Ireland

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 15th May 2018, 4.00pm - Jean-Pascal Bassino (Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Lyon; Lyons Institute of East Asian Studies)

Low population density, high female status, and fertility restriction in early modern Southeast Asia: evidence for the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 22nd May 2018, 4.00pm - Isabelle Séguy (French National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED))

New insights into historical plagues using GIS analysis: towards a retrodiagnosis of the unknown 1705 epidemic in Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône, South of France)

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 5th June 2018, 4.00pm - Richard Smith (University of Cambridge)

Environmental Shocks and Demographic Consequences in England: 1280-1325 and 1580-1640 Compared

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

Cambridge Conservation Seminars

The series is intended to provide a research and social focus for university lecturers, research staff and postgraduate students interested in conservation research. The primary aim is to inform university colleagues of what research is going on in different departments and to bring in high quality outside speakers. Equally, members of conservation organisations are welcome to attend. A key element is the opportunity after each talk to socialise with colleagues from different departments and organisations.

Generously funded by the CCI Strategic Initiative Fund
http://www.conservation.cam.ac.uk/

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Climate and Environmental Dynamics - Department of Geography

Seminars which may be of interest to members of the Climate and Environmental Dynamics research group within the Department of Geography.

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Thursday 26th April 2018, 5.30pm - Denis-Didier Rousseau - Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique & CERES-ERTI

Record of abrupt changes of last climate cycle in European glacial dust deposits

Venue: Bawden Room, West Court, Jesus College

This presentation is an overview to the project ACTES, supported by the French ANR, and previous projects I conducted on European loess sequences. The main aim was to study the record of abrupt climate changes, corresponding to the Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, in European terrestrial records, especially loess sequences. Loess is an eolian material that can be considered in a first order as “paleodust”. This study was designed as a data-model comparison to investigate how these sequences recorded the DO events in a periglacial environment, how the dust was emitted and deposition occurred, and from which source zones.

Europe has been strongly impacted by the millennial climate changes related to variations in the sea-ice extent and therefore also affected the moisture sources of precipitation on the Greenland ice sheet. These variations in the extent of the sea ice during the last climatic cycle (LCC, about 130-15 kyr) impacted the westerlies and the position of the polar jet stream, and consequently storm track trajectories. Furthermore, the presence of ice sheets and ice caps over Great Britain, Scandinavia and the Alps enhanced the zonal circulation, as recorded by the European paleodust deposits located along the 50°N parallel.

Loess sequences are well developed all over Europe, but especially in the so-called loess belt between 48° and 52°N. Such intensive deposition of paleodust over Europe has been favored by the reduced arboreal cover (even practically absent in NW Europe during both GS and GIs, by sea-level lowering, exposing large areas of the continental shelves to eolian erosion, and by strong increases in fluvial transport and sedimentation by periglacial braided rivers. Extensive investigations of European loess series along a longitudinal transect at 50°N reveal that the millennial-scale climate variations observed in the North-Atlantic marine and Greenland ice-core records are well preserved in loess sequences. Among them, the Nussloch loess site yields an important record of the LCC although its paleosol-loess unit couplet succession is not unique, but observed with a variable thickness and a diverse nature of the paleosols in sequences ranging from Western Europe eastward to Ukraine over more than 1800 km.
Recent numerical simulations of the past global dust cycle for the first time included glaciogenic dust sources and, compared to earlier attempts, resulted in an improved performance when confronted to data available for the Last Glacial Maximum. Still, even the improved modeling failed to capture spatial and temporal dynamics of past dust deposition. We achieve recently a step increase in understanding sub-continental scale climate change by identifying dust sources and constraining dust residence time in the atmosphere. Using dust deposition over Europe during the last glacial cycle, geochemical fingerprinting, and numerical dust emission simulations we identify the main aerosol sources for different depositional areas. Dust was transported at low elevation and over regional distances only. The glaciogenic sources considered so far in climate modeling, like frontal moraines and outwash plains of the European ice-sheets, were of considerably less relevance for the global dust budget than proposed earlier. The main contributors were regions between 48°and 52°N, with variable hot spots depending on climate conditions. Loess units are interpreted to correspond to coarse paleodust transported at rather low elevations, in the active layer of the atmosphere (about 300 to maximum 3000 m) at regional to local scales, while finer paleodust deposited at high latitudes seems transported at much higher elevations.

A recent study raised the problem in correctly estimating the sedimentation (SR) and mass accumulation (MAR) rates of the sequences for comparison with model estimates, which cannot be estimated by just taking into account the whole thickness of the considered deposits as classically performed. To solve this issue, Greenland ice and northwestern European eolian deposits are compared in order to establish a link between GI and the soil development in European mid-latitudes, as recorded in loess sequences. For the different types of observed paleosols, the precise correlation with the Greenland records is applied to propose estimates of the maximum time lapses needed to achieve the different degrees of maturation and development. To identify these time lapses more precisely, two independent ice-core records are compared: d180 and dust concentration, indicating variations of temperature and atmospheric dustiness respectively in the Greenland area. This method slightly differs from the definition of a GI event duration applied in other studies where the sharp end of the d18O decrease gives the end of a GI. The same methodology is applied to both records (i.e., the GI last from the beginning of the abrupt d18O increase or dust concentration decrease until when d18O or dust reach again their initial value) determined both visually and algorithmically, and compare them to GI published estimates.

# Thursday 17th May 2018, 5.30pm - Joy Singarayer - University of Reading

TBC

Venue: Bawden Room, West Court, Jesus College

Abstract not available

Political ecology

• Political ecology research group lunchtime meetings

Polar Physical Sciences

• SPRI Physical Sciences Seminar Series

Histories, cultures, environments and politics research seminars

• Histories, cultures, environments and politics research seminars - Scott Polar Research Institute

Gender

• Multidisciplinary gender research seminars

Quaternary Discussion Group (QDG)

A series of 50 minute lectures, followed by discussion, on the broad topic of environmental evolution, climate, ecological and human change during the Quaternary (the last ~2.6 million years). The lectures are aimed at a broad audience (including geoscientists, glaciologists, environmental scientists, atmospheric chemists, biologists, anthropologists and archaeologists).

Easter term seminars are on Thursdays starting at 17:30 in Jesus College in the Bawden Room (use West Court entrance on Jesus Lane). Wine is served after the talks and there is time for discussion over drinks and/or dinner.

QDG is currently organised by Heather Ford (hlf4@cam.ac.uk). Please feel free to contact her with queries and suggestions.

A map showing of Jesus College is available at https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/jesus_college_map.pdf

To sign up to the QDG mailing list, follow this link:
https://lists.cam.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/soc-qdg-quaternary-disc-reminder

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Thursday 26th April 2018, 5.30pm - Denis-Didier Rousseau - Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique & CERES-ERTI

Record of abrupt changes of last climate cycle in European glacial dust deposits

Venue: Bawden Room, West Court, Jesus College

This presentation is an overview to the project ACTES, supported by the French ANR, and previous projects I conducted on European loess sequences. The main aim was to study the record of abrupt climate changes, corresponding to the Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events, in European terrestrial records, especially loess sequences. Loess is an eolian material that can be considered in a first order as “paleodust”. This study was designed as a data-model comparison to investigate how these sequences recorded the DO events in a periglacial environment, how the dust was emitted and deposition occurred, and from which source zones.

Europe has been strongly impacted by the millennial climate changes related to variations in the sea-ice extent and therefore also affected the moisture sources of precipitation on the Greenland ice sheet. These variations in the extent of the sea ice during the last climatic cycle (LCC, about 130-15 kyr) impacted the westerlies and the position of the polar jet stream, and consequently storm track trajectories. Furthermore, the presence of ice sheets and ice caps over Great Britain, Scandinavia and the Alps enhanced the zonal circulation, as recorded by the European paleodust deposits located along the 50°N parallel.

Loess sequences are well developed all over Europe, but especially in the so-called loess belt between 48° and 52°N. Such intensive deposition of paleodust over Europe has been favored by the reduced arboreal cover (even practically absent in NW Europe during both GS and GIs, by sea-level lowering, exposing large areas of the continental shelves to eolian erosion, and by strong increases in fluvial transport and sedimentation by periglacial braided rivers. Extensive investigations of European loess series along a longitudinal transect at 50°N reveal that the millennial-scale climate variations observed in the North-Atlantic marine and Greenland ice-core records are well preserved in loess sequences. Among them, the Nussloch loess site yields an important record of the LCC although its paleosol-loess unit couplet succession is not unique, but observed with a variable thickness and a diverse nature of the paleosols in sequences ranging from Western Europe eastward to Ukraine over more than 1800 km.
Recent numerical simulations of the past global dust cycle for the first time included glaciogenic dust sources and, compared to earlier attempts, resulted in an improved performance when confronted to data available for the Last Glacial Maximum. Still, even the improved modeling failed to capture spatial and temporal dynamics of past dust deposition. We achieve recently a step increase in understanding sub-continental scale climate change by identifying dust sources and constraining dust residence time in the atmosphere. Using dust deposition over Europe during the last glacial cycle, geochemical fingerprinting, and numerical dust emission simulations we identify the main aerosol sources for different depositional areas. Dust was transported at low elevation and over regional distances only. The glaciogenic sources considered so far in climate modeling, like frontal moraines and outwash plains of the European ice-sheets, were of considerably less relevance for the global dust budget than proposed earlier. The main contributors were regions between 48°and 52°N, with variable hot spots depending on climate conditions. Loess units are interpreted to correspond to coarse paleodust transported at rather low elevations, in the active layer of the atmosphere (about 300 to maximum 3000 m) at regional to local scales, while finer paleodust deposited at high latitudes seems transported at much higher elevations.

A recent study raised the problem in correctly estimating the sedimentation (SR) and mass accumulation (MAR) rates of the sequences for comparison with model estimates, which cannot be estimated by just taking into account the whole thickness of the considered deposits as classically performed. To solve this issue, Greenland ice and northwestern European eolian deposits are compared in order to establish a link between GI and the soil development in European mid-latitudes, as recorded in loess sequences. For the different types of observed paleosols, the precise correlation with the Greenland records is applied to propose estimates of the maximum time lapses needed to achieve the different degrees of maturation and development. To identify these time lapses more precisely, two independent ice-core records are compared: d180 and dust concentration, indicating variations of temperature and atmospheric dustiness respectively in the Greenland area. This method slightly differs from the definition of a GI event duration applied in other studies where the sharp end of the d18O decrease gives the end of a GI. The same methodology is applied to both records (i.e., the GI last from the beginning of the abrupt d18O increase or dust concentration decrease until when d18O or dust reach again their initial value) determined both visually and algorithmically, and compare them to GI published estimates.

# Thursday 17th May 2018, 5.30pm - Joy Singarayer - University of Reading

TBC

Venue: Bawden Room, West Court, Jesus College

Abstract not available

Cambridge Volcanology

Cambridge Volcanology seminars.

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Cambridge Cultural and Historical Geography (CCHG) - Department of Geography

Seminars and public lectures within the Cambridge Cultural and Historical Geography research group of the Department of Geography.

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Thursday 26th April 2018, 5.00pm - Matthew Pawelski, University of Lancaster

‘Women’, ‘Lads’ and ‘Copers’: Household, community, and the divisions of labour at the Derbyshire lead mines, c.1736-1765

Venue: History Faculty Room 12

Research based on account books from Miners Engine Mine, Derbyshire, shines light on the divisions of labour in an eighteenth-century workplace. The findings suggest continuities in the artisanal structures of the industrial workforce during the eighteenth century, and highlight the importance of household and community in determining the roles of age and gender groups.

# Thursday 3rd May 2018, 5.00pm - Eleanor Robson, University of Cambridge

Contested ground: Agricultural improvement in Hatfield Level, 1625-1660

Venue: History Faculty Room 12

Seventeenth-century drainage of the English fens was a flagship project of state-led ‘improvement’, which promised to alchemise unproductive wetland commons into profitable, enclosed terra firma. This paper examines how drainage was experienced and navigated by local people in the northern fens to illuminate how it produced differential improvement and contested environments.

# Tuesday 8th May 2018, 4.00pm - Alan Fernihough (Queen's University Belfast)

Population and Poverty in Pre-Famine Ireland

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Thursday 10th May 2018, 5.00pm - Kathryn Gary, University of Lund

The extreme seasonality of early modern casual labour and what it means for workers’ incomes: Sweden 1500-1830

Venue: History Faculty Room 12

Using observations of over 151,000 individuals’ workdays in the construction industry, this paper investigates individual work patterns, work availability, and the changes in work seasonality over time. The sample includes unskilled men and women as well as skilled craftsmen. Some are ‘full-time’, but even these do not work as many days as real wage models assume. Real wage methodology becomes more problematic the further into the past we look.

# Tuesday 15th May 2018, 4.00pm - Jean-Pascal Bassino (Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Lyon; Lyons Institute of East Asian Studies)

Low population density, high female status, and fertility restriction in early modern Southeast Asia: evidence for the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Tuesday 22nd May 2018, 4.00pm - Isabelle Séguy (French National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED))

New insights into historical plagues using GIS analysis: towards a retrodiagnosis of the unknown 1705 epidemic in Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône, South of France)

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

# Thursday 24th May 2018, 5.00pm - Tawny Paul, University of Exeter, and Jeremy Boulton, Newcastle University

Debtors’ schedules: a new source for understanding the economy in 18th-century England

Venue: History Faculty Room 12

Debtors’ schedules, or inventories of wealth produced in the wake of Debtor Insolvency Acts, constitute a significant and relatively unused source related to the economy of eighteenth-century England. This paper presents new research on the scope and significance of schedules. It explores their potential to provide new insights into wealth, credit and work, and considers their relationship to probate material.

# Tuesday 29th May 2018, 4.00pm - Cheng Yang (University of Cambridge)

160 years of occupational structure: Late Imperial China and its regions

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Despite extensive debates around West-East divergence in economic developments before and during the Industrial Revolution, empirical evidence of China remains thin. Using Xingke Tiben (judicial records of Chinese homicide trials), a hitherto unused source for occupational data, a new occupational database has been created that comprises individual-level occupational data and other key variables; over 31,000 individuals in 8,000 randomly sampled Xingke Tiben from the Qing Empire’s 320 prefectures in 1736-1898 are recorded. This paper discusses the core methodology (assessment of the inherent biases; reweighting) and key results of reconstructing the occupational structure of China and its regions from this database.

# Tuesday 5th June 2018, 4.00pm - Richard Smith (University of Cambridge)

Environmental Shocks and Demographic Consequences in England: 1280-1325 and 1580-1640 Compared

Venue: Seminar Room 5, Faculty of History

Abstract not available

Geographies of Knowledge - Department of Geography

Seminars and public lectures within the Geographies of Knowledge research group of the Department of Geography.

View the archive of previous seminars.

# Monday 14th May 2018, 4.30pm - Nina Doering (University of Oxford)

'They don't know about the people who live here': Local non-participation in extractive resource management in Greenland

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

# Monday 2nd July 2018, 4.30pm - Elizabeth Leane (University of Tasmania) and Carolyn Philpott (University of Tasmania)

Singing in the Wilderness: Antarctic Sledging Songs of the 'Heroic Age'

Venue: Scott Polar Research Institute, Lecture Theatre

Abstract not available

Biogeography and Biogeomorphology - Department of Geography

Seminars and public lectures within the Biogeography and Biogeomorphology research group of the Department of Geography.

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Fieldwork Seminar: Methodologies in the 'field'

These seminars at the Department of Geography are based on reflections from recently undertaken (though this is not essential) fieldwork, and will engage with the challenges of fieldwork, and the contradictions between methodology as we understand it in abstraction, and what plays out in the field.

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Graduate Workshops in Economic and Social History

All talks take place on Mondays at 12.30 pm in Room 5, Faculty of History, West Road.

All welcome. A complimentary sandwich lunch is provided.

Convenors: Josh Ivinson and Emiliano Travieso.

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.

Other talks

Talks in the Department of Geography not connected to any other seminar series.

There are no forthcoming seminars at present. Please check back here later.

You may wish to view the archive of previous seminars.