RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research merges the history of science with environmental history to understand interactions between people, knowledge, and global environmental change. I strive to understand how society and culture shape the historical evolution of science, technology, and engineering. But I also believe it is vital to recognize that dynamic environmental change over time also affects not only science and technology but also social relations, power dynamics, economics, and culture. This is why it is so important to link the history of science with environmental history. While my in-press book focuses on the Andean region, I also do comparative research on Europe, the United States, the British Caribbean, and the Himalayas.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
I am currently conducting research and publishing on several issues. For a list of publications and presentations, see my CV (pdf). Current research projects include:
1. Science, Disasters, and Society below Melting Andean Glaciers
My book, In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers: Climate Change and Andean Society (Oxford University Press, 2010), examines social and scientific responses to Peru's melting glaciers that have triggered repeated disasters and killed 25,000 people since 1941. Merging the history of science with environmental history, the book demonstrates how Peruvians developed innovative science to study dangerous glaciers and engineered the dynamic Andean landscape to prevent glacier disasters by draining and damming thirty-four dangerous glacial lakes since the 1940s. The book provides ground-level historical context for today’s concerns about global warming while also revealing how societies adapt (or don’t) to climate change and natural disasters over time.
Artistic depiction of the 1941 Huaraz glacial lake outburst flood that killed 5,000 people. Image appeared in the local newspaper Noticias é Informaciones on Jan. 10, 1942.
2. Curative Climates and Medicinal Places
My next book project is a comparative study that merges the history of medicine and disease with climatology and the historical cultural construction of climate. In the late-nineteenth century, people worldwide began traveling to regions with supposedly healthful climates to be cured of tuberculosis, asthma, and other diseases. This project examines changing perceptions of regional and national climate, the histories of health resorts, and the culture and science of climate therapy in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the topic has yet to be explored in depth.
3. Mountaineers, Scientific Exploration, and Environmental Change
This project examines 1930s European scientist-mountaineering in the Andes, and it will expand into a book project on mountaineering history in Latin America more broadly. It analyzes the ways in which changing alpine environments intersected with developments in science and national politics.
4. Glacier Hazards in Global, Historical Perspectives
Glacier hazards have become critical issues for societies worldwide. Global climate change has exacerbated the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and glacier avalanches in mountains worldwide. This research project uncovers ways in which scholars have studied glacier hazards in the various world regions, noting how glaciology, applied geology, and environmental engineering evolved distinctly in different world regions. The project compares these developments in the Alps, Andes, and Himalayas.
In collaboration with several undergraduate students, I designed a corresponding website, "Glacier Hazards and Society: Online Bibliography and Resources," to increase international awareness, share information, and facilitate research on dangerous glaciers worldwide. I welcome additional contributions to the searchable digital library and technical resources.
5. Water Use and Culture in the Andes: Rethinking the Science of Climate
Working in collaboration with Elliott O'Brien (an undergraduate student at W&L) and Adam French (a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz), this research analyzes how social relations and power dynamics (governance) shape water use in the Andes. The project puts a recent conflict over water use at Lake Paron, Peru, into historical and scientific context while analyzing the various societal motivations that led local communities to seize the lake from Duke Energy and the Peruvian government in 2008.
The former city center of Huaraz completely destroyed by the Dec. 13, 1941 glacial lake outburst flood.