
Péter Szabó and Tania Munz
Péter Szabó and Tania Munz
- Czech Academy of Sciences and Forest History Society
Forest History: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?

January 23, 2025 - 12:00 PM
Péter Szabó (Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) will be in conversation with Tania Munz (Forest History Society) to explore what we know about pre-industrial forests and how we know it. Szabó’s research focuses on a wide range of topics and methods, from prehistoric forest dynamics through medieval woodland management to the use of large databases in history. In this conversation, Szabó and Munz will discuss the opportunities and challenges of collaborations between different experts—including historians, ecologists, and practitioners—to understand how humans have interacted with forests over time.
Speaker Biographies
Péter Szabó - Senior Researcher, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Science; Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences of Masaryk, University of Brno
Péter is senior researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences and he also lectures at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He holds a PhD in Medieval Studies from the Central European University (Hungary) and MA degrees in History and English from ELTE University (Hungary). Before moving to the Czech Republic in 2008, he worked at the Archaeological Institute of ELTE. His research ranges from prehistoric forest dynamics through medieval woodland management to the study of the effects of great windstorms on forests in the past two centuries. He feels best in interdisciplinary research teams and was lucky enough to lead such a team in the ERC funded LONGWOOD project. He also published quite extensively on the conceptual aspects of connecting ecology with history. In 2017-2019 he was the President of the European Society for Environmental History. In addition, he serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals Environment and History and Global Environment: A Journal of Transdisciplinary History.
Tania Munz - President and CEO, Forest History Society
As president and CEO, Tania oversees all FHS programs and operations of the Forest History Society. Before joining FHS in 2023, Tania served as the Chief Program Officer for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in Cambridge, MA. There, she led the independent research center, which conducts work in areas spanning science, humanities, international affairs, and education. Previously, Tania served as Vice President for Scholarly Programs at the National Humanities Center and as Vice President for Research and Scholarship at the Linda Hall Library, where she oversaw the collections, public services, and scholarly programs. She has taught history of science and environmental history at Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University and was a Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany. Tania holds a PhD in the history of science from Princeton University, a master's degree in the history of science and technology from the University of Minnesota, and a BA from the University of Chicago in the history of science and medicine. She authored the award-winning book The Dancing Bees: Karl von Frisch and the Discovery of the Honeybee Dance Language (University of Chicago Press, 2016).
Recommended Readings
Jamrichová, E., Szabó, P., Hédl, R., Kuneš, P., Bobek, P., & Pelánková, B. (2013). Continuity and change in the vegetation of a Central European oakwood. The Holocene, 23(1), 46-56.
Kozdasová, A., Galčanová Batista, L., Hédl, R., & Szabó, P. (2024). Coppice reintroduction in the Czech Republic: extent, motivation and obstacles. European Journal of Forest Research, 143(1), 305-317.
Szabó, P. (2020). Traditional woodland management, forest legislation and modern nature conservation in East-Central Europe. Conservation’s Roots: Managing for Sustainability in Preindustrial Europe, 1100-1800.