Mississippi And Danube Rivers Comparative Workshop: Environmental And Cultural Exploration.pdf

The Center for German and European Studies (CGES), Nelson Institute Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE), and Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) collaborated on a groundbreaking joint workshop focusing on the comparative histories of the Mississippi and Danube rivers. Over five days, nine German and Austrian scholars from various fields—environmental humanities, sciences, and social sciences—joined 33 CHE faculty and graduate students in the U.S. to explore the geological, environmental, cultural, and economic aspects of the upper Midwest through the lens of the Mississippi watershed.

Key outcomes included:

- Radio Episode: The trip inspired an episode titled "The Mississippi" on the nationally syndicated Wisconsin Public Radio show, To the Best of Our Knowledge, aired on July 31, 2016.
- Digital Magazine Articles and Photo Essays: Four pieces were published in CHE's popular digital magazine, Edge Effects:
- Spring Greeney, "Five Ways to Ford the Dam(n)ed Mississippi" (May 10, 2016)
- Daniel Grant et al., "Snapshots of the Mississippi" (May 24, 2016)
- Owen Selles, "Sounding Calls" (June 21, 2016)
- Matt Turner, "Rhythms of Time Along the Water" (August 9, 2016)
- Comparative Danube Trip: A follow-up trip along the Danube from Germany to Austria to Slovakia was organized by RCC participants. Scheduled for June 4–11, 2016, the journey will explore the cultural, economic, environmental, geological, and political history of the river using various modes of transport.

European guests included Dorothea Hutterer, Eleonora Rohland, Uwe Luebken, Vikas Lakhani, Wolfram Mauser, Heike Bach, Pavla Šimková, Felix Mauch, Gudrun Pollack, Christoph Mauch, and Marta Niepytalska.