Environmental History at the University of Kansas

Faculty

Environmental history first appeared as a new field about thirty years ago in the United States and now has spread to all parts of the world. Although it incorporates much older material from history and geography, environmental history represents a fresh approach to the human condition, one influenced by today's mounting problems in the environment. It looks at humankind's long, ever-changing relationship to the natural world, as it has been mediated through technology, science, systems of economic production and consumption, religion, race, gender, literature, government, and policy. Nature has been a powerful influence on the development of societies through such forces as climate and microorganisms. In turn, humans have increasingly become a powerful influence on topography, the atmosphere, and the evolution of organisms.

The University of Kansas has excellent resources for advanced study in this field. They include the Spencer Research Library, the science-oriented Anschutz Library, and (in Kansas City) the Linda Hall library, which also specializes in science and technology.

Ph.D. Graduate core

Doctoral students may choose this thematic field as part of Track B (two major fields and one secondary field). In addition to completing the three core courses listed below, they will take one elective course, for a total of 12 hours. That elective course may be in the natural sciences, cultural ecology, or geography, with the permission of the student's advisor.

Students who select Track A (one major field and two secondary fields) will be able to choose Environmental History as a secondary field and must take two courses from the core.

  • History 806: Studies in World Environmental History
  • History 879, Colloquium on North American Environmental History
  • History 981, Seminar in Environment and History

M.A. Students working toward this degree can select Environmental History as one of their three fields (Option A), taking a minimum of nine hours in the field; or as the secondary field (Option B), with nine hours.

Supporting courses:

  • History 562, United States Environmental History in the Twentieth Century
  • History 591, Food in History: West and East
  • History 635, The Invention of the Tropics
  • History 636, Agriculture in World History
  • History 808, Colloquium on Comparative History: The Plantation Complex

Plus individual readings courses on such topics as East Asian environmental history; Latin American environmental history; disease, ecology, and Indigenous Nations; the history of ecology and environmental science; or the development of environmental law & policy.