Associate Professor of Environmental Problems and Policy

Johanna Alderfer Harris and William H. Harris, M.D. Chair in Environmental Studies

Growth and Structure of Cities Department and Environmental Studies Program

Thomas Hall, 101 North Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr College

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010

estroud@brynmawr.edu

(610) 526-5660

 

 

Education                              

 

Columbia University.  U.S. History Ph.D.  October 2001.  Dissertation:  “The Return of the Forest:  Urbanization and Reforestation in the Northeastern United States.”

 

University of Oregon.  U.S. History M.A. June 1995.  Master's Thesis:  “A Slough of Troubles:  An Environmental and Social History of the Columbia Slough.”

 

University of Michigan.  Honors College. Honors Political Science B.A. May 1988.  

U of M Club of Greater Philadelphia Academic Scholarship Award, 1984-88.

 

Albert-Ludwigs Universität.  Freiburg, West Germany. Junior year abroad. 1986-87.

 

Middlebury College.  Russian Language Summer School. Summer 1986.

 

 

Employment

 

Bryn Mawr College:  Bryn Mawr, PA

Director of Environmental Studies, July 2010 to present.

Associate Professor of Environmental Problems and Policy in the Growth and Structure of Cities Department, tenured February 2009. 

Assistant Professor of Environmental Problems and Policy, 2006 to 2009. Teaching includes Environmental History, Urban History, Environmental Justice and Urban Studies.

 

Oberlin College:  Oberlin, OH

Assistant Professor of U.S. Environmental History, 2001 to 2006.  Courses included U.S. Environmental History, U.S. History Since 1945, Urban Environmental History, Water in American History, The Body in Environmental History.

 

University of Oregon:  Eugene, OR

Visiting Instructor in U.S. Environmental History.  Summer 1998, Summer 1999.

 

 

Major Fellowships, Grants, and Awards       

 

Johanna Alderfer Harris and William H. Harris, M.D. Chair in Environmental Studies, 2009-present.  Bryn Mawr College.

 

National Humanities Center Fellowship, 2009-10.

 

National Science Foundation Scholar Award, 2005-8.

 

 

American Council of Learned Societies/Andrew W. Mellon Junior Faculty Fellow, 2004-5. 

 

Charles Warren Fellow, 2004-5.  Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History.  Seminar topic for 2004-5:  The Culture and Politics of the Built Environment in North America.

 

Alice Hamilton Prize of the American Society for Environmental History, 2000.  Award for the best environmental history article published outside of the organization’s own journal.

 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “Science to Achieve Results” (STAR) Fellow, 1998-01.

 

Public Policy Fellow, 1998-99.  Columbia University Public Policy Consortium.

 

Richard Hofstadter Fellow, 1995-99.  Columbia University History Department. 

 

 

Publications

 

Dead as Dirt: An Environmental History of the Dead Body.  Monograph under contract with Harvard University Press.

 

Nature Next Door:  Cities and the Rebirth of Northeastern United States.  Forthcoming Spring, 2012.  University of Washington Press Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books Series.

 

“A Lively Seminar on Death: Teaching the Environmental History of the Human Corpse.” The Organization of American Historians’ Magazine of History, forthcoming October 2011.

 

“Who Cares About Forests?  How Forest History Matters,” in A Companion to Environmental History, ed. Douglas Sackman, 410-424.  Blackwell Companions to Environmental History.  Chichester, West Sussex, UK:  Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. 

 

“Dead Bodies in Harlem:  Environmental History and the Geography of Death.”  In Andrew Isenberg, ed., The Nature of Cities:  Culture, Landscape and Urban Space (Rochester, New York:  University of Rochester Press: 2006), 62-76.

 

“Postcards from the Edges of a Field.”  Environmental History 10:1 (January 2005), 96-97. Invited essay for the journal’s tenth anniversary issue.

 

“Does Nature Always Matter?  Following Dirt Through History.” History and Theory, 42 (December 2003), 75-81.

 

“Reflections From Six Feet Under the Field:  Dead Bodies in the Classroom.”

Environmental History 8:4 (October 2003), 618-627.

 

“Troubled Waters in Ecotopia:  Environmental Racism in Portland, Oregon.”  Radical History Review.   Issue 74: Special Issue on Environmental Politics, Geography and the Left (Spring 1999), 65-95. 

                --Awarded the ASEH Alice Hamilton Award, 2000. 

                --Reprinted in Louis S. Warren, ed., American Environmental History, Blackwell Readers in American Social and Cultural History Series (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2003)

 

Reviews

 

“Searching for the Answers Hidden in Writers’ Homes.”  Review of Anne Trubek, A Skeptic’s Guide to Writer’s Houses (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).  The Philadelphia Inquirer 15 May 2011.

 

“Making Sacred Places.”  Review of Jared Farmer, On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008) and James Robson, Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue) in Medieval China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009).  Material Religion 7:2 (2011) 286-287.

 

“An Enduring but Troubled Classic.” Review of Gilbert Osofsky’s Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Negro New York, 1890-1930, 2^nd ed. (1971; reprint, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1996).  H-Net Reviews, 9/97.  Also published in revised form as “City Lit: Harlem Benighted,” City Limits 1 January 1998, 33.

 

 

Selected Academic Presentations

 

“Haunted Basements, Toxic Fields: The Corpse in American Environmental History.” Invited Lecture.  University of Pennsylvania Department of History and Sociology of Science Workshop Series.    April 11, 2011.

 

“Bodies in the Basement: Paupers’ Graves and Property Values in Philadelphia.”  Invited Lecture.  University of Delaware History Workshop.  April 5, 2011.

 

“The Disposal of the Dead in 19^th-century American Environmental History.” Invited Lecture.  The Library Company of Philadelphia Symposium “Revisiting Rural Cemeteries.” March 16, 2011.

 

“Urbs in Horto: Urban Nature in Europe and North America.”  Roundtable panel presentation and discussion.  American Society for Environmental History Conference.  March 12, 2010.

 

“Dead as Dirt: An Environmental History of the Dead Body.”  Invited Talk.  Social Science Research Seminar at Wake Forest University.  March 1, 2010.

 

“Living Among the Dead:  Corpses and Property Rights in U.S. Environmental History.” Invited Talk. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History. February 19, 2010.

 

Roundtable on the Environmental History of Philadelphia. Roundtable panel presentation and discussion. American Society for Environmental History Conference. March 15, 2008.

 

Panel Comment for the Temple University Conference, “Nature’s History:  Environmental History for the Twenty-First Century.”  Workshop conference participant for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Environmental History.  September 28, 2007.

 

“Ashes to Toxic Ash: Toward an Environmental History of the Dead Body.” Invited Talk. University of Michigan Science, Technology, and Society Program. March 28, 2005.

 

“Polluting Bodies: The Toxic Landscape of Corpse Disposal.” Paper presentation. American Society for Environmental History Conference. March 19, 2005.

 

“Toxic Bodies: The Problem of People as Pollution.”  Guest Speaker, Harvard School of Public Health.  February 15, 2005.

 

“Cremating the Modern, Modified Body.” Paper presentation. American Society for Environmental History Conference. April 3, 2004.

 

“Dead Bodies in Harlem:  Environmental History and the Geography of Death.” Invited talk. Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies Conference. December 12, 2003.

 

“Toward A New ‘Body’ of Environmental History.”  Invited talk, State-of-the-Field Session on Environmental History.  Organization of American Historians Conference.  April 4, 2003.

 

“Leisured Landscapes and Working Woods:  Recreating the New Hampshire Forests.”  Invited talk.  Case Western Reserve History Department.  November 1, 2002.

 

“The Return of the Forest:  Urbanization and Reforestation in the Northeastern United States.”  Invited talk.  Cincinnati Seminar on the City.  October 10, 2002.

 

“Defining Property:  State Power and Public Land in Early-20^th-Century Maine.”  Paper presentation.  American Society for Environmental History Conference.  March 2002.

“Who Owns the Public Lots?  Defining Public Land in Early-20^th-Century Maine.”  Paper presentation.  American Society for Legal History Conference.  November 2001.

 

“Does Nature Always Matter?  Political History and the Environmental Lens.”   Paper presentation.  American Society for Environmental History Conference.  March 2001.

 

“The Return of the Forest:  Urbanization and Reforestation in the Northeastern United States.”  Poster presentation. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Conference.  July 2000.

 

“Metropolitan Nature:  Urban Leisure, Rural Work and the Return of the Forest.” Paper presentation. American Society for Environmental History Conference.  April 1999.

 

“Bringing Back the Trees:  Urban Watershed Protection and Reforestation in the Northeastern United States.” Paper presentation. American Historical Association Annual Meeting.  January 1999.

 

“Changing Borders, Changing Centers:  Toward a Landscape History of Harlem.” Paper presentation. American Society for Environmental History Conference.  March 1997.

 

“A Slough of Troubles: Environmental Racism at the Columbia Slough.”  Paper presentation.  Environmental Cultures/Historical Perspectives Conference.  April 1996.

 

 

Professional Service

 

To the Profession

 

American Society for Environmental History. Officer and Executive Committee Member.  Elected to a four-year term in 2005, re-elected in 2009.

 

Encyclopedia of American Environmental History.  Member of the Board of Editors.  Four-volume encyclopedia, Kathleen Brosnan, ed., under contract with Facts on File for publication in 2009.

 

Rachel Carson Prize Committee, American Society for Environmental History. Served on the committee awarding the prize for the best dissertation in Environmental History in 2003.

 

Grant Proposal Reviews. Grant proposal referee for the National Humanities Center, the Wellcome Trust, and for the Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program.

 

Book Manuscript Reviews. Manuscript reviewer in environmental history and in teaching history to undergraduates for Oxford University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St. Martins.

 

Article Manuscript Reviews.  Reviewer of article submissions in environmental history for Pacific Northwest Quarterly and the Journal of Women’s History.

 

 

            To Bryn Mawr College

 

Director of Environmental Studies. Serving as Director of the Environmental Studies Program since 2010.  Led the development of the Tri-Co Environmental Studies Minor with Haverford and Swarthmore colleges.  The minor, replacing Bryn Mawr’s Environmental Studies Concentration, is launching in Fall 2011.

 

Environmental Studies Steering Committee.  Serving since 2006.  Organized student events, field trips, senior outings; assisted in curriculum development and coordination, program outreach, and the expansion of the Environmental Studies Program in the humanities and social sciences.

                       

Grant Development.  Key Contributor in the development of a successful 5,000 institutional proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, entitled “Strengthening the Humanities and Social Science Components of the Environmental Studies Concentration at Bryn Mawr College.” Awarded in 2008.

 

Praxis Steering Committee. Appointed 2007. Working with committee on developing alternative models of praxis and methods of integrating praxis components into the broader college curriculum.

 

Undergraduate Admissions Committee. Elected to a three-year term, 2007-10.

 

Mellon Tri-Co Steering Committee.  Appointed 2008.  Reviewing grant proposals from faculty at Swarthmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr and planning faculty development events.

 

Barbara Miller Lane Symposium on the Built Environment.  Organized and led three-day symposium on the built environment, bringing leading scholars of the built environment to campus for student and faculty talks, meetings, and presentations.  Spring 2008.

 

 

To Oberlin College

 

Environmental Studies Program Committee Member. 2002 to 2006.

 

Compton Fellowship Committee. 2004 committee to select and advise Oberlin College candidates for the Compton Foundation Mentor Fellowship Program.

 

Environmental History Search Committee. 2003-4.  Served on the committee to appoint a non-continuing U.S. Environmental Historian.

 

 

Professional Memberships

 

American Society for Environmental History.  Member since 1996.  Officer and Executive Committee Member since 2005.

 

Forest History Society.  Member since 1996.

 

American Historical Association.  Member since 1996.

 

Organization of American Historians.  Member since 1996.