Today to celebrate anniversary week, we're thrilled to share a crosspost with our friends at @nichecanada.bsky.social: @micaamy.bsky.social's incredible comic for fire season #envhist #envhum envhistnow.com/2025/09/17/l...

One of the many reasons I love my job is because I can go look at cool things like this whenever I want.

One month until publication for _Ethanol: A Hemispheric History for the Future of Biofuels_. Tom Rogers and I lay out the linked history of the US and Brazilian ethanol programs and explain why they matter for energy, climate, and politics. Pre-orders available now! www.oupress.com/978080619601...

JOB: 2026-27 Mahindra Humanities Center Postdoctoral Fellowships in Environmental Humanities, Harvard University (USA) For Early Career Scholars (PhD from May 2023 or later) #envhum networks.h-net.org/jobs/69060/h...

"I see hockey as a cultural heritage landscape, one that retains an important social role in contemporary society and one that is threatened by climate change." - Lauren Walker niche-canada.org/2018/11/27/c...

Up North

Does anyone have experience creating a mapping project with Omeka?

Do I know anyone with experience creating a digital archive? I have an idea/something I’m trying to put together, but have a few questions.

Officially official 🎓

I have a former student interested in researching JFK, particularly his assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald. This is admittedly not my area of expertise and I know that the topic of JFK is rife with conspiracies, but does anyone have any solid books/articles I could share with them?

I have a former student interested in researching JFK, particularly his assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald. This is admittedly not my area of expertise and I know that the topic of JFK is rife with conspiracies, but does anyone have any solid books/articles I could share with them?

We moved and I’m making an inventory of all of my books. It got me thinking: which author has written the most books that you own? Pretty sure mine is Alan Taylor with 7.

We learned last month that the State of Iowa will no longer fund or publish their peer-reviewed journal Annals of Iowa, which is now looking for an institutional home. Here we share our letter of concern, and we hope others will join us in supporting state and local history! 🗃️ 🧵

Check out @haydenlnelson.bsky.social's review of ‪@charmiller4.bsky.social‬'s "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning," published in 2024 by @osupress.bsky.social www.h-net.org/reviews/show...

Despite warnings from the law enforcement not to attend today’s No Kings rally after this mornings shooting of Minnesota lawmakers with the killer on the lose, the No Kings Rally is happening at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

George Orwell wrote in 1941:

This should be front-page news in every news outlet worth a damn these days.

great opportunity for historians of games and/or the environment - check it out! niche-canada.org/2025/06/05/c...

After federal troops forced a fugitive slave named Anthony Burns back into slavery in the 1850s, one Bostonian wrote, “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.” The abuse of power radicalizes people. We are seeing that now.

Reminder: elections close at 11:59pm on Friday, June 13. Make sure to vote!

I had the pleasure of reviewing Willa Hammitt Brown’s new book, Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth, and the American Lumberjack, for the most recent issue of Minnesota History. Check out the review ⬇️ storage.googleapis.com/mnhs-org-sup...

Whenever we have friends (non-historians) visiting I ask if they know anything about the history of Lawrence/Bleeding Kansas/John Brown. It bewilders me how, at best, they hear John Brown and say, “Oh! I’ve heard of him…what’d he do again?”

Elections will close at 11:59pm on Friday, June 13. Only early career folks are able to vote for ECC leadership, and the email group is how we keep track of that. Please reach out to the email below if you’d like to be added to the group/vote.

Today we have "Cuts to FEMA and Disaster Preparedness Will Disproportionately Harm Disabled Americans" by Abigail Block & @kstackwhitney.bsky.social Part of our Tracking the Effects: Environmental History and the Current United States Federal Administration series niche-canada.org/2025/05/23/c...

Hooding yesterday + commencement today = #PhDone

Sign at the doctoral hooding ceremony: “Graduates will be lead…” My advisor: shakes head

2025 ASEH Early Career Caucus Call for Nominations - @asehearlycareer.bsky.social Nominations should be made by Sunday, May 18th. niche-canada.org/2025/05/10/2... #envhist

The American Society for Environmental History Early Career Caucus is accepting nominations for various positions through May 18th. @aseh.bsky.social - @asehearlycareer.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2025/05/10/2... #envhist

I’m thrilled to share several personal updates! (1/4)

@aseh.bsky.social @asehearlycareer.bsky.social @carsoncenter.bsky.social @nichecanada.bsky.social

Hi everyone, we’ve extended the call for nominations to serve on the ASEH Early Career Caucus. The new nominations deadline is now Sunday, May 18. Please consider serving: early career participation in the caucus is vital to early career representation within the broader association. Please share!

We’re in the last week of my US since 1877 survey. Does anyone have any articles/recommended readings regarding the ICE deportations, the general rise in authoritarianism, or Elon Musk/DOGE?

This book is excellent (in my totally unbiased opinion)

One of my favorite things as a teacher is telling my students that I’m proud of them when I recognize the effort that they put into a given assignment. It’s so cool to see them grow intellectually and they deserve to be proud of their effort and progress.

Some photos from the past ten days of travels. Left: Angel Oak tree in Charleston, South Carolina. Right: a photo of Drew Isenberg (3rd from right) and some of his past and present advisees at ASEH 2025 in Pittsburgh.

I’m looking forward to connecting with like-minded scholars at this year’s @aseh.bsky.social in Pittsburgh! If you have some free time on Thursday, come see my presentation on Lake Erie’s mayflies. It’s a transborder history (🇨🇦/🇺🇸), so may be of interest to my colleagues @nichecanada.bsky.social

An undergraduate from a different university wanted to talk to an “expert” on beavers and reached out to me of all people. We just had a terrific hour and a half phone interview. It’s so cool to hear young people so interested in environmental history and sustainability.

Sent my dissertation out to my committee on Friday!

Back at UW-Eau Claire for some last-minute research. I miss this old place. It’s wild how much smaller the city and campus seems now. It still feels like home.

Good mail day

Some good news to start the day: received an email inviting me for a job interview and another notifying me of an R&R in the span of two hours.

I wish we had a president more invested in people’s lives and basic human rights and not having “the cards.”

Me, assigning early 20th c. socialist readings (Eugene Debs, Lucy Parsons) to my students and seeing them realize the exploitation and oppression inherent to capitalism:

Sic semper tyrannis

Word from The Lawrence Times is that somewhere between 20-30% of the staff at Haskell Indian Nations University are among those government employees who lost their jobs today.

This is so close to the stated justification for Indian Removal--that it would be better for the Cherokees and others Natives to be moved West of the Mississippi--although not even Andrew Jackson stooped to calling the "Trail of Tears" majestic.

Quite the successful haul from the Lawrence Public Library’s book sale!

Another Center running another seminar to publish another edited volume. Good to be in the scholarly trenches with folks like this!