Event Date: Mar 10 2010 – Mar 14 2010
City: Portland, OR
Country: USA

This year’s program committee is pleased to present the program for the 2010 meeting of the American Society for
History. The theme “Currents of Change” speaks especially well to the environmental character of the Pacific Northwest, and the plenary session – with its emphasis on the conflicting and changing uses of the Klamath River – highlights important regional issues associated with evolving perceptions of fish, dams, and the way different people value a remarkable waterway. But the theme “Currents of Change” resonates throughout the field of environmental history and is hardly confined to topics with a riparian bent. Thus it proved a generous platform allowing for a rich and diverse set of presentations.

The conference includes 90 regular sessions, a plenary session, a host of posters, and two special workshops. Over 400 scholars and professionals are formally participating in the program. This is a huge number – more than any prior ASEH conference— but it need be noted that the committee could not incorporate into the program all of the session and paper proposals submitted to us. Choices had to be made and we regret that we could not accommodate all the worthy proposals we received. That said, we are extremely proud of the program and believe that everyone attending the conference will find panels, posters, and roundtables of abiding interest.

Archived Presentations

NiCHE has archived 13 presentations from this event.

Citation: MacFarlane, Daniel. “‘Sold the nation’s birthright’: Canadian-American environmental diplomacy and the creation of the St. Lawrence seaway and power project, 1949-1954” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, OR. March, 2010.
Bio: Daniel Macfarlane is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa. His dissertation focuses on Canada’s role in the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Abstract: This presentation focuses on the extent to which Canadian conceptions of the environment, progress, and technology in the formative years of the Cold War shaped the Canadian-American St. Lawrence negotiations from 1949 and 1954. Arguing that the desire for an all-Canadian seaway was the result of an environmental nationalism and consciousness that framed the St. Lawrence River as an exclusively Canadian resource, this presentation also engages issues surrounding wider Canadian governmental and public attitudes toward water and nature.

Citation: Duncan, Colin. “Global Defrosting and the End of Cultural Relativism” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010.
Bio: Queen’s University
Abstract: The talk is about why ice matters to humans and how its melting will cause an interconnected set of cultural upheavals of unprecedented kinds and scales that we environmental historians (above all) cannot ignore as a coda to our courses.

Citation: Adams, Nathan T. ““We Saw Mighty Whales” Nantucket Sperm Whaling, Or What Was 18th Century Ecological Understanding” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010.
Bio: Nathan T. Adams is at the University of British Columbia

Citation: Evans, Peter. “Aunt Kate’s Map, or, How the Moravians Made the Labrador Inuit Legible to the Liberal Welfare State” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010
Bio: Peter Evans is a PhD Candidate at Cambridge University.

Citation: Evenden, Matthew. “The Convenience of War: Transboundary River Development in North America 1939-1945” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010.
Bio: Matthew Evenden is an associate professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia

Citation: Heasley, Lynne. “Negotiating the Great Lakes: The International Joint Commission and the Changing Ecology of Environmental Law” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010.
Bio: Lynne Heasley, Western Michigan University.

Citation: Kheraj, Sean. “Urban Animals” American Society for Environmental History. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010
Bio: Sean Kheraj is a Postdoctoral Fellow in history at the University of British Columbia.

Citation: MacFadyen, Josh. “Hewers of Wood: Canadian Biomass Energy in the Age of Coal” American Society of Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010.
Bio: Josh MacFadyen is a PhD Candidate at the University of Guelph

Citation: Peyton, Jonathan. “The Stikine-Iskut Hydro Project: Corporate Ecology and the Rise of Environmentalism in Northern British Columbia” American Society for Environmental History. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010.
Bio: Jonathan Peyton is a PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of British Columbia

Citation: Andrews, Thomas, Lawrence Culver, Liza Piper & Robert Wilson. “Publishing Your First Book: A Discussion with Four New Authors” American Society for Environmental History. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010
Bio: Thomas Andrews, University of Colorado Denver, Lawrence Culver, Utah State University, Liza Piper, University of Alberta, Robert Wilson, Syracuse University.

Citation: Sandwell, Ruth “Households, Energy and Environment on the Canadian Shield 1890-1950” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010
Bio: Ruth Sandwell, University of Toronto

Citation: Tester, Frank. “Mad Dogs and (Mostly) Englishmen: Image Morphology, Cultural Transformation, and the Consumption of Inuit Culture” American Society for Environmental History. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010
Bio: Frank Tester, University of British Columbia

Citation: Van Huizen, Philip. ” “We’ll Let No Vandal Drown You”: Environmental Activists and the 1967-1984 Canadian-American Skagit River Controversy” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Portland, Oregon. March, 2010
Bio: Philip Van Huizen, University of British Columbia