Together the CUNY Human Ecodynamics Research Center (HERC) and the Princeton University Climate Change and
History Research Initiative (CCHRI) lead a Thematic Hub devoted to Past Socio-Environmental Change and
Resilience in support of the BRIDGES International Program Office.
CCHRI is an international interdisciplinary initiative inaugurated in 2015 with the aim of bringing together
archaeologists, climate historians and specialists in the palaeoenvironmental sciences in an endeavour to
transcend disciplinary boundaries and avoid mutual misunderstanding in respect of the use and application of
data. Our focus is historical societal resilience and sustainability in the face of both environmental and
climatic as well as anthropogenic challenges and hazards. Based at Princeton University, the core group
consists of some 20 scholars in the fields of history and archaeology, the palaeo-environmental and
palaeoclimate sciences, climate modelling and social anthropology, based at universities or research
institutions.
Building on many years of successful interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations developed in the
NABO network, the IHOPE program, and the Human Ecodynamics Research Center at CUNY, the CUNY-Princeton Hub
works to foster community-based co-production of knowledge and the integration of local heritage and
education initiatives in projects also producing data critical to understanding long term human-environment
interactions. Full community engagement is vital to any successful response on the local level to threats
from climate change and the impacts of globalization. Accordingly we work with multiple collaborators to
improve our own capacity to engage successfully with communities not simply as hosts but as active and vital
partners in knowledge co-production in the effort to achieve sustainable socieities. HERC, NABO and IHOPE
projects in Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, the Faroe Isles, Scandinavia, the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean
have long had a strong community component, and current NSF support for the project “Co-production of
knowledge and the building of archaeological capacity in Greenland” (2019-23) continues this effort.
A lack of understanding of the complexity of past socio-environmental interactions has often led to
misguided strategic thinking and failures in planning for resource management as well as longer-term
development. In light of current concerns about environmental degradation, making policymakers more aware of
the results of relevant historical research and cases of past resilience, collapse and adaptation
socio-ecological systems, for example in the context of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, can only be
of benefit. Recent decades have seen an enormous growth in our knowledge of climate change. We can now begin
to apply this data in a collective effort to understand complex social and cultural change at both the
macro- and the micro-level. With CCHRI and HERC co-anchoring the CUNY-Princeton BRIDGES Hub, new insights
can be achieved and lifted forward into debates on socio-ecological resilience, which are crucial to our
understanding of current global environmental changes and relevant policymaking.
Film information:
Archaeological sites across the circumpolar north are rapidly degrading as a consequence of rising global temperatures. This short film shares the story of the Greenland RESPONSE project and the archaeologists racing to record and rescue what is left. Focussing on the sub-arctic farming landscape of Kujataa, south Greenland, the film documents the excavations of Norse (Viking) farming settlements dating between the 10th-14th centuries, while exploring the very tangible connections to present-day Inuit farming communities working the same soil.
Meet our Hub Staff
We’re a dynamic group of individuals who are passionate about what we do and dedicated to delivering the
best results for our clients.
John Haldon
Co-Director of the Bridges Hub at Princeton/CUNY, a medieval historian and archaeologist, and
Director of the Climate Change and History Research Initiative at Princeton University.
Tom McGovern
Co-Director of the Bridges Hub at Princeton/CUNY. He also co-directs the CUNY Human Ecodynamics
Research Center (HERC) at CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College’s Zooarchaeology Lab.
Princeton University’s Climate Change and History Research Initiative (CCHRI) a co-lead in the BRIDGES CUNY-Princeton Hub, is partnering with The Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) to shed light on socio-ecological approaches to the history and archaeology of Anatolia.
CCHRI, in collaboration with the Human Development Report Office of the UN, hosted the CCHRI’s annual colloquium, addressing the contemporary challenge of the value of the concept of an Anthropocene, and in particular what its heuristic value might be in addressing global environmental challenges, and whether a historical perspective contributes constructively to building such a strategy.
The CCHRI annual entry-level workshop took place as usual in January and introduced over twenty participants from the fields of history and archaeology to the palaeoecological sciences and their relevance to historical and archaeological research.
Here follows details of recent Climate Change and History Research Initiative (CCHRI) related publications. CCHRI is a lead partner in the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES CUNY-Princeton Thematic Hub. The first three publications below are specifically relevant to CCHRI’s BRIDGES-related projects:
Archaeological sites across the circumpolar north are rapidly degrading as a consequence of rising global temperatures. This short film shares the story of the Greenland RESPONSE project and the archaeologists racing to record and rescue what is left. Focussing on the sub-arctic farming landscape of Kujataa, south Greenland, the film documents the excavations of Norse (Viking) farming settlements dating between the 10th-14th centuries, while exploring the very tangible connections to present-day Inuit farming communities working the same soil.
