Seminar: Waste, Epidemics, and Human Health in Environmental Studies
23 October 2025
Part of the international series “Rethinking Ukraine’s Environment: War, Ecocide, and Beyond”
Thursday 4 December 2025
10 a.m. MST (Edmonton) / 12 p.m. EDS (Toronto) / 18:00 CET (Warsaw) / 19:00 EET (Kyiv)
Online only | Zoom registration here
This seminar will explore how societies have understood and managed threats to health and the environment across different historical contexts. From the early Soviet policies that turned waste into a strategic economic resource, to the late socialist era’s “waste anxieties” over invisible toxins like radiation and nitrates, and ultimately to nineteenth-century literary and cultural responses to epidemics, the seminar presentations will trace shifting perceptions in Ukraine of pollution, contagion, and cleanliness. Together, they will reveal how waste and disease have shaped not only material practices but also moral, political, and cultural visions of human health and social order.
(Presentations in English; Q&A in English or Ukrainian.)
Speakers: Natalia Laas, Tetiana Perga, and Dmytro Yesypenko
Welcome remarks: Natalia Khanenko-Friesen | Moderator: Oleksii Chebotariov
Webinar Zoom registration here
This seminar is part of the international series “Rethinking Ukraine’s Environment: War, Ecocide, and Beyond,” which aims to foster a deeper understanding of historical human–environment relationships—a vital factor in addressing Ukraine’s current environmental challenges and envisioning a secure and sustainable future.
Read more about the seminar series here.
Hosted by CIUS, this international seminar series is a joint initiative of the EnvHistUA Research Group and Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, with further support from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (Södertörn University), Center for Governance and Culture in Europe (University of St. Gallen), and the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH).