Biography

I grew up in California and Oregon, spending a considerable portion of my youth wandering around western North America, first on vacations and later as a commercial fisher and truck driver. This helps explain my scholarly fascination with the region. I completed my degrees at the University of Oregon (1990, 1992) and the University of Washington (1996). I taught for seven years in the History Department at Iowa State University, and I have been with the History Department at Simon Fraser University since 2004.

I was trained as an Americanist and frontier historian. My primary fields of research in the last ten years have been in environmental history and the history of western North America. My publications focus on Pacific salmon fisheries and the history of modern rock climbing, but I have also written on changing ideas about the American West and the history of fisheries, fisheries science, and fisheries management on a global scale. As director of the Environmental History Data Lab, I am also pursuing research and training in the spatial analysis of historical subjects.

Books

Areas of Graduate Supervision:

I supervise topics on the history of western North America, the environment, fisheries, outdoor sports, rural gentrification, and First Nations and American Indians.

Accepting new graduate students: yes

Teaching Interests

I currently teach classes on North American environmental history, problems in environmental history, western North America, and United States history.

Awards