Research Interests

My dissertation examines the history of American environmentalism and environmental thought. I am particularly interested in the work of Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954), Aldo Leopold (1887-1948). and Wendell Berry (b. 1934). Figures I term pragmatic naturalists, Bailey, Leopold, and Berry did not subsume humans into the natural world, losing sight of the important role culture plays in the environment.  Nor did they merely cite human well-being as a reason for protecting the non-human world.  They maintained that while culture and nature were inextricably linked, each played a unique role in human experience.

Dissertation

Garden, Forest, and Farm: Pragmatic Naturalism in the United States

Education

MA, American History, Thesis: "John Dewey, the New Left, and the Politics of Contingency and Pluralism," University of Oregon, 2012
BA, History, Oglethorpe University, 2008

Selected Publications

• “Deep Ecology in Humboldt County: Bill Devall and a Philosophy for Direct Action” in Left in the West, edited by Gioia Woods, Reno: University of Nevada Press (December 2018).
• "The newest threat to California’s redwoods isn’t what you’d think," The Washington Post (April 2018).
• “Liberty Hyde Bailey: Pragmatic Naturalism in the Garden,” Environment and History, 24, 1 (2018): 121-138.
• "Aldo Leopold and the History of Environmental Ideas,” The Blog of the Journal of the History of Ideas (February 2016).

Presentations

• “On the Coherence of American Environmental Thought; Or Why I Hate the Anthropocene,” Invited Speaker, Museum Association of New York/Smithsonian Water/Ways workshop, Troy, NY (December 2018)
• “Community-Engaged Research and Learning in Ladakh,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA (November 2018)
• "Deep Ecology in Humboldt County: Bill Devall and a philosophy for direct action,” American Society for U.S. Intellectual History, Chicago, IL (November 2018)
• “Rochester’s Environment: A Public Humanities Project,” Jesse L. Rosenberger Work-in-Progress Seminar, Humanities Center, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (April 2018)
• "Redwoods and Reefer," American Society for Environmental History, Riverside, CA (March 2018)
• "Pragmatic Naturalism in the Work of Liberty Hyde Bailey, Aldo Leopold, and Wendell Berry," American Society for Environmental History, Chicago, IL (April 2017)
• "Liberty Hyde Bailey: Radical Democracy and the Environment," Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. (October 2015)
• "Darwin, Dewey, and Pragmatic Naturalism," Summer Institute in American Philosophy, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland (June 2015)
• "Liberty Hyde Bailey and Pragmatic Naturalism," Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, 42nd Annual Meeting, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI (March 2015)
• "Aldo Leopold and American Environmental Philosophy," Graduate History Symposium, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (February 2015)
• "John Dewey, the New Left, and the Politics of Contingency and Pluralism," Summer Institute in American Philosophy, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (July 2011)

Teaching

• HIS 253: Digital Methods in Oral and Environmental History, Instructor, University of Rochester (Fall 2018)
• HIS 190: Darwin and Science in America, Instructor, University of Rochester (Fall 2017)
• HIS 194: Rethinking Nature--Environmentalism in the 20th-Century United States, Instructor, University of Rochester (Summer 2017)
• HIS 106: World History III, Discussion Section Instructor, University of Oregon (Spring 2012)
• HIS 309: History of Women in the U.S., Grading Assistant, University of Oregon (Winter 2012)
• HIS 201: Colonial America, Discussion Section Instructor, University of Oregon (Fall 2011)
• HIS 241: Modern Warfare, Grading Assistant, University of Oregon, (Spring 2011)
• HIS 202: Early Republic, Discussion Section Instructor, University of Oregon (Winter 2011)
• HIS 201: Colonial America, Discussion Section Instructor, University of Oregon (Fall 2010)

Honors

• Public Humanities Fellowship, University of Rochester Humanities Center and Humanities New York, 2017-2018.
• Parker Memorial Prize, University of Rochester History Department, 2016.
• Aida DiPace Fellowship, University of Rochester History Department, 2014 - present.