About

I am a historian of American environmental history with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I hold a BA (Hons) and MA in History from the University of British Columbia, and an MPhil from Columbia University. My dissertation, provisionally entitled “Unnatural Selection,” analyzes animal “acclimatization” – the intentional introduction of non-indigenous species – in America from the late nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth. This massive bioengineering movement permanently added several new species – carp, pheasants, quails, sparrows, starlings – and millions of individual creatures to American landscapes. In studying it, I argue that historians have failed to appreciate the magnitude of animal acclimatization, as well as the civilizational, nation-building terms in which Americans understood it. I think they, and the general public, have also missed the extent to which the US government embraced acclimatization as a long-term strategy to feed the ravenous hunting lobby and fur industry.

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Beyond my doctoral work, I maintain an avid interest in the history of the life sciences, the history of the conservation and animal rights movements - inside and outside of America - and American political history.

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I welcome any inquiries about my work, and any outreach from prospective graduate students considering studying at Columbia. I can be reached at brb2150@columbia.edu.

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