At the ESEH Conference in Bern last month, The White Horse Press maintained our tradition of awarding the Poster Prize. A judging committee comprising Sarah Johnson (of WHP), Marianna Dudley (ESEH Vice-President), Sebastian Depretto (University of Bern) and Anastasia Fedotova (ESEH regional representative for Russia) examined a dozen posters and second place was awarded to the beautiful poster created by artist Alexandra Raeva and environmental historian Andrei Vinogradov, entitled ‘Princess of the Thaw’. Unlike the more typical academic poster, this work foregrounds the aesthetic and captures the eye from across the room. However, it is not merely decorative but integrates a lot of information – both about observable effects of climate change and the oral traditions that are part of the local population’s way of making sense of these effects. Wed judged this interdisciplinary approach to be most interesting and commendable. Andrei introduces the poster briefly below. As well as the image here, a higher resolution PDF can be viewed here
The Altai Mountains are one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. The average annual temperature here has increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius over the past few decades, causing numerous disasters and catastrophes as described in our poster.
The poster is one of the outcomes of the expedition we undertook to the Altai Mountains in 2021 to explore the social dimension of climate change. The diverse research team, which included historians and designers, largely predetermined our approaches to studying the region. Refusing to use graphs and photos, we resorted to the advantages of art: it can visualise past events and mythological characters that cannot be seen but play an important role in the perceptions of local people. We are delighted that this integration of art and humanities was successful and was appreciated at the ESEH conference in Bern.
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