We are pleased to announce the official launch of our DFG-funded scientific network "Russian Ecospheres. Forms of Ecological Knowledge in Russian Literature, Culture and History", which brings together literary, cultural, historical and natural scientists from Europe and North America.

The goal of the network is to historically contour ecology as a knowledge figure, analytical category, and interdisciplinary paradigm in research on Russia and the Soviet Union, to establish it in research policy, and to popularize it in the public sphere.

To this end, paradigmatic topics such as research on the Russian Arctic, deserts, forests, and soils are used to examine transpositions of ecological knowledge between literature, culture, and society. From a systematic point of view, the network discusses approaches to thinking that update specific forms and concepts of ecological thought from the Russian tradition (e.g., the concept of the sphere, ecological semiotics, or geopoetics) and make them compatible with contemporary theoretical debates.

In the form of publications (anthology and handbook on ecological thinking in Russia and the Soviet Union) and platforms (international study group for ecological issues related to Russia and the Soviet Union), structures will be established that will increase the visibility and profile of the research approaches to ecology, which have so far been only fragmentary, especially in literary and cultural studies.

To kick off the project, the network will hold a three-day conference at Freie Universität Berlin from June 24-26, 2022, at which basic texts on the history of ecological thought will be read, studies on the history of ideas and concepts will be presented, and the state of research in subfields of ecological research will be discussed.