Meet the Jury Martin Schmid on Vienna and the Danube: A co-evolutionary history

Arenberg Doctoral School is proud to invite you to Meet The Jury!

When internationally renowned experts visit KU Leuven as a member of a PhD Examination Committee, we like to seize this opportunity to give this expert a forum to a large audience. All members of Science, Engineering & Technology are most welcome to the Meet The Jury Lectures.

Prof. Dr. Martin Schmid (Associate Professor at the Center for Environmental History (ZUG), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna)

In the run-up to the public PhD defence of Eline Lathouwers (ICAG/KU Leuven, Belgium), examination committee member Martin Schmid (BOKU university, Vienna) will give a so-called “Meet the jury seminar”. Prof. Dr. Martin Schmid is an environmental historian working on rivers in Austria.

Almost 15 years ago, an interdisciplinary group in Vienna began researching the environmental history of the Danube. In this lecture Martin Schmid will summarise results of this research, many but not all of which have since been published. In fact, this research has changed our idea about the history of Vienna, about the genesis of this centre of the Habsburg Empire. The environmental history of the Danube itself, of this large, most international river in the world, remains a formidable challenge for European research. Based in these experiences, the lecture will then discuss a more fundamental question: How should riverine environmental history be conceptualized and practiced today, to become meaningful and effective in a world of  dramatic environmental change, in times of increasing pressure on rivers and on those dependent on their rivers’ integrity?

More information about this seminar can be found on the following webpage. If you want to register, please subscribe here.

• Venue: Aula Emma Vorlat (00.E20) at AGORA, Edward Van Evenstraat 4, 3000 Leuven + online
• Date: 14 June 2024, 14:30 – 16:00
• Prof. Martin Schmid is visiting KU Leuven at the occasion of the PhD defence of Eline Lathouwers.