Jan-Bart Gewald receives NWO Open Competition grant

ASCL senior researcher Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald receives an NWO Open Competition grant to conduct research on mining history in South Africa, Zambia, and Namibia. The project, entitled “Boom to Dust: The Environmental History of Three Industrial Mining Centres in Southern Africa, 1870-2020” will investigate the environmental history of three industrial mining centres in southern Africa. Through a comparative study, “Boom to Dust” will describe and analyse the long-term impact of mining in southern Africa on more than humans alone. Central to the research will be the testing of a new methodological approach in which the landscape is taken as a historical source that can be read.

Ample socio-anthropological studies, as well as political, economic and cultural histories of southern Africa’s industrial mining revolution exist, but until now no environmental histories of this transformation have been written. Given the radical change that occurred, and the fact that mineral extraction, once heralded as the epitome of progress, lies at the root of the Climate Crisis in the Anthropocene, the time has come for a more critical approach to answer the question, what was the environmental impact of the industrial mining revolution that transformed southern Africa? Specifically, what was the impact of industrial mining when viewed from a more than human multi-species perspective? Succinctly, how did industrial mining transform the living space of plants and animals (including humans) in three mining centres?

“Boom to Dust” is a historical project that draws heavily upon other disciplines, anthropology in particular. Research on each of the three sites will begin with an extensive literature review, including the relevant biological, geological and geographical material. To be followed by field research, and research in public and private archives in Europe and Africa. The PI and two PhDs will each carry out research in their respective sites in stretches of 3, 12 and 1 month. This will allow researchers to work through local archives, interact with informants, and “walk the land”, to gain insight into the multi-species history of the mining sites. Fieldwork will coincide with three workshops to be held in each of the field sites, this will facilitate the exchange of findings and allow the researchers to visit one another’s fieldwork sites.

Read more in the upcoming interview with Jan-Bart!

Read more about and apply for the PhD vacancies (deadline 15 October).