Snapshots

Snapshots are short essays in Environment and History, which focus directly on the environmental challenges of the twenty-first century and look to historical perspectives to inform a more sustainable world. Snapshots encompass diverse subjects and perspectives and are typically focused on compelling historical case studies, incorporating sources and methodologies from environmental history as well as adjacent disciplines.

We would particularly like to address the following topics in 2025, though authors are welcome to submit work addressing other themes in environmental history:

• The impact of war, conflict and imperialism on the environment. 
• Interactions between technology and the environment in history.
• Pre-modern (i.e. pre-1750) relationships between the human and the non-human, and their lessons for the twenty-first century.
• Water histories: human impact on waterways and relationships with water, perceptions of water and waterways.

We aspire to extend these pieces out of the canonical environmental history echo-chamber by encouraging submissions from early career researchers (including Ph.D. candidates) and those in cognate disciplines, even outside academia entirely. We also wish to raise the profile of voices from communities that might tend to be marginalised, in terms of gender, race or other factors. 

Texts should be up to 2,000 words (some of which may be replaced by images) and will be free to read. Please send a pitch (title, abstract, short bio) to Tyson Luneau, Editor of Snapshots and Deputy Editor of Environment and History: tyson.luneau@cortland.edu