Dr. Ellen Stroud :: Publications

Publications and Projects

Dead As Dirt: An Environmental History of the Dead Body. Book Project. Research supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, Harvard University's Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, the National Science Foundation, and the National Humanities Center.

Nature Next Door: Cities and the Rebirth of Northeastern Forests. Forthcoming from the University of Washington Press, 2012. Research supported by fellowships from Columbia University, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“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).

“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).

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.

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

“Ashes to Toxic Ash: Cremating the Modern, Modified Body.” 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.

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

“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.

“The Importance of Place: Bringing Environmental History into the Secondary School Classroom.” Invited lecture. Westchester Land Trust Teaching Workshop. March 1998.

“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.