Matthew W. Klingle
Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies
Spring 2008
- Environment and Culture in North American History (ES 203)
- Honors Seminar in History (HIST 452)
| Phone | (207) 798-7141 |
| Title | Associate Professor |
| Department | HISTORY |
| 2nd Title | Associate Professor |
| 2nd Department | ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES |
| Work Location | 110 Adams Hall |
| mklingle@bowdoin.edu |
Education
Ph.D., History, University of Washington (2001)
M.A., History, University of Washington (1995)
B.A., History, University of California, Berkeley (1990)
Major Publications
Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle,The Lamar Series in Western History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).
Seattle's troubles were also America's troubles. Their shared plight stemmed from a long and complicated history that places humans and their environment at an impasse. The history of salmon and the city is tangled, and when Seattleites try to pry the two apart, they find themselves confronting a history embedded in the city's very foundations. The resulting questions spin heads: Are cities natural? Are salmon unnatural? Are salmon raised in captivity wild? Can a wild salmon live in a man-made river? But to ask these questions is to fall into the dualism that pervades so much environmental thinking. Nature must be pure, yet historically speaking that has turned out to be an elusive state....We need to rethink what an attention to history, human and non-human, can offer. To do this we must fully understand the notion of an ethic of place.
From the "Prologue: The Fish that Might Save Seattle," Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle
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"Fair Play: Outdoor Recreation and Environmental Inequality in Twentieth-century Seattle," in The Nature of Cities: Culture, Landscape, and Urban Space Andrew Isenberg, ed. Studies in Comparative History series (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press in association with the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University, 2006), 122-56.
"Changing Spaces: Nature, Property, and Power in Seattle, 1890-1945," Journal of Urban History 32 (January 2006), 197-230.
"Fluid Dynamics: Water, Power, and the Reengineering of Seattle's Duwamish River" (Special Issue on Water and the Urban West), Journal of the West 44 (Summer 2005): 22-29.
"Spaces of Consumption in Environmental History" (Theme Issue on Environment and History), History and Theory 42 (December 2003): 94-110.
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"Plying Atomic Waters: Lauren R. Donaldson and the 'Fern Lake concept' of Fisheries Management," Journal of the History of Biology 31 (Spring 1998): 1-32.
Selected Works-in-Progress
"'The Fish that Might Save Seattle': Salmon and the Unexpected Presence of the Past," in Cities in Nature: Urban Environments in the American West, Char Miller, ed. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, forthcoming)
"Metropolitan Empire: American Cities and the Pacific Rim," for "Frontier Cities: A Conference Commemorating the Work of John Francis McDermott and Richard Wade," co-sponsored by the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders at Yale University and The St. Louis Mercantile Library Association, in progress for meeting on February 29-March 1, 2008
"Consumerism," in The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History, Andrew Isenberg, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
A Long, Green Shadow: Consumerism and the Origins of Modern Environmentalism, book-length project in preliminary stages of research
Selected Papers and Invited Presentations
"On History and Honor," Honors Day Address, Bowdoin College, May 9, 2007
"The Limits of Recovery: History and Ecology in Maine's Merrymeeting Bay" (with John Lichter, Biology & Environmental Studies, Bowdoin College), Boston Environmental History Seminar , Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, April 10, 2007.
Panelist, "Roundtable: New Directions in Suburban and Urban History," American Historical Association-Pacific Coast Branch, Stanford, CA, August 2006
"Seattle's 'Metro Monster': Ecological Restoration and Geographies of Inequality," Program in the History of Science and Technology Colloquia, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, April 14, 2006
"The Emerald City: Toward a New Ethic of Place," Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Colby College, October 21, 2005
"This Space for Sale: Urban Consumption and Environmental Change in Twentieth-century Seattle," for "The Nature of Cities: New Perspectives in Urban Environmental History," Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University, December 13, 2003
"'The Shape of Things to Come': Restoring Nature and Promoting Inequality in Postwar Seattle," Urban History Seminar, Chicago Historical Society, November 20, 2003
Panelist, "State-of-the-Field: Environmental History," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Memphis, TN, 2003
"'Things are going to get real Western': Myth, History, and Violence in the American West," public lecture for the exhibit, The Culture of Violence, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, October 9, 2002
"Power Lines: Reproducing Nature and Inequality in Seattle and Boston," American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, March 2002
Selected Honors and Grants
Fletcher Family Research Award, Bowdoin College, 2006-08
Sydney B. Karofsky Prize for Junior Faculty (for excellence in teaching), Bowdoin College, 2006
ACLS/Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Junior Faculty, American Council of Learned Societies, 2004-05
Summer Stipend Award, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2004
Co-Primary Investigator, Merrymeeting Bay Long-Term Ecological Research Project, Henry Luce Foundation Research Grant (John Lichter, Biology/Environmental Studies, Primary Investigator; Peter Lea, Geology, Matthew Klingle, History/Environmental Studies, and DeWitt John, Government/Environmental Studies, Co-Primary Investigators), 2003-06
Best Dissertation in Urban History (completed in 2001), Urban History Association, 2002
National Fellow, Environmental Leadership Program, 2001-03
Science to Achieve Results Fellowship, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1999-2002
Alice Hamilton Prize, Best Article in Environmental History (published outside of Environmental History), American Society for Environmental History, 1999
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, Science and Technology Studies Program (now Science and Society Program), National Science Foundation, 1998-99
Selected Professional and Community Service
Board of Trustees, Environmental Leadership Program, 2004-06
Board of Directors, Urban History Association, 2004-06
National Fellowship Selection Committee, Environmental Leadership Program, 2004
Manuscript reviewer, Environmental History, Pacific Historical Review, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Bedford/St. Martin's Press, Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine
Grant Reviewer, Science and Society Program, National Science Foundation
Selected Exhibits and Multimedia Materials
"Building Nature: Topics in the Environmental History of Seattle and Spokane--A Curriculum Project for the History of the Pacific Northwest in Washington State Schools," (Seattle: Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington, 2006).
Guest Curator, Beyond the Frontier: The Mythic West in American Art and Culture, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME. Temporary exhibit, 26 February-31 March 2002.
Historian and Consultant, Salmon Stakes: People, Technology, Nature, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, WA. Permanent exhibit. Opened January 1998.
Selected Review Essays, General Articles, and Media Appearances
"Clio's Rough Roads," review essay on Paul Carter, The Road to Botany Bay: An Exploration of Landscape and History for "Anniversary Forum: What Books Should Be More Widely Read in Environmental History," Environmental History 10 (October 2005): 702-04.
"Class Notes: Thoughts on Diversity in the Classroom and in Environmentalism's Past," in Diversity and the Future of the U.S. Environmental Movement, Emily Enderle and James Gustave Speth, eds. (New Haven, CT: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Publication Series, 2007), 73-94.
Interview for "Reading the Viaduct, Past and Present," on Weekday, hosted by Steve Scher, produced by Katy Sewall and David Hyde for KUOW-Seattle, broadcast March 1, 2007.
"Caste from the Past" (with Joseph E. Taylor III), article for "Poverty and the Environment--A Grist Special Series," Grist Magazine, March 8, 2006
Interview for "The Public Green and the Poor," documentary produced by Richard Paul for Soundprint, broadcast on National Public Radio affiliates nationwide the week of January 23, 2006
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