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Historical GeographyOur research encompasses a broad spectrum of interests, both thematic and regional. Generally, there is particular enthusiasm for work that combines theoretical and empirical scholarship, seeking to reveal the general through close scrutiny of the particular, and for work that speaks to issues of broad current environmental concern. At present, research in historical geography focuses on three broad areas: (i) Environmental history: Current research analyzes problems of resource use and depletion, environmental conflicts in the Canadian west, large-scale river development, the environmental consequences of military mobilization during the Second World War, the environmental history of Canada and Alaska. (ii) Historical geographies of migration: Research in progress focuses on the peopling of British North America and New Zealand, and the social and environmental effects of settlement. (iii) Historical geographies of modernity: Work is currently under way on colonial modernities and the 'colonial present', on military occupations of Arab cities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and on cultures of travel in Egypt from 1798 through 1914. At the M.A. level many students work on British Columbia (because the archives are at hand) - though recent work has included the American South, New Zealand, the American Pacific Northwest, Victorian Britain and West Africa. Ph.D. theses range much more widely. Recent and current student research foci include Vancouver, British Columbia; transnational water issues in western North America; wetland drainage in Manitoba; agriculture and environmental change in South Africa; the war on grasshoppers and wild horses in the BC interior; and the historical geographies of representation in Canada. Faculty working on Historical Geography
Matthew Evenden, Associate ProfessorEnvironmental history, water history B.A. Honours, Queen's University; M.A., Ph.D. (2000), York University "My research lies in environmental history and water history, with a regional specialization in Canada, particularly Alberta and British Columbia. I serve as a co-leader of the Canadian Water History Project (with Stphane Castonguay, UQTR), and an executive leader of the Network in Canadian History and Environment. The politics of large rivers lies at the core of my research program. How have rivers been contested by different social and cultural groups? How have rivers been perceived and understood? And how have political economies shaped and been shaped by rivers and the resources drawn from them? I have explored these questions in a book on the environmental history of the Fraser River, Fish versus Power, published by Cambridge University Press (2004), which received a Clio prize from the Canadian Historical Association. Recently I completed a co-authored book exploring the overlapping uses of and claims to the Bow River in Alberta, The River Returns (McGill-Queens UP) with colleagues, Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles. I am currently working on a book-length manuscript, Mobilizing Rivers, which analyzes the development of hydro-electricity in Canada during the Second World War."
Website: blogs.ubc.ca/waterhistory Website: niche-canada.org/water_history Email Contact: matthew.evenden@geog.ubc.ca Office Phone: 604-822-6407 Room Number: GEOG 251 
Cole Harris, Professor EmeritusCanadian Historical Geography B.A., UBC; M.S., Ph.D. (1964), University of Wisconsin "Research interests focus on European settlement in early Canada and on geographies of colonialism in early British Columbia."
Honours: Order of Canada; Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada; LL.D. honoris causa, York University Email Contact: cole.harris@geog.ubc.ca Office Phone: 604-822-3537 Room Number: GEOG 241 
Alf Siemens, Professor EmeritusEnvironmental history and agricultural globalization B.A., M.A., UBC; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin "My research interests focus on pre-Hispanic wetland agriculture; cultural-historical geography of Mesoamerican tropical lowlands; and the recent impact of agricultural globalization. I am currently working on an environmental history of the Candelaria River Basin in southwestern Campeche, Mexico, from the recent extraction of the river's age-old transportational function by a road network, back to the Archaic period and very early evidence (ca. 7000 BP) for human intervention in the river system."
Website: www.geog.ubc.ca/~asiemens Email Contact: asiemens@interchange.ubc.ca 
Graeme Wynn, ProfessorEnvironmental and historical geography B.A. Honours, University of Sheffield; M.A., Ph.D. (1974), University of Toronto Former Head of the Department (1996-2002; 2005-2009). Former Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts, UBC (1990-1996).
Honours: Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada Email Contact: graeme.wynn@geog.ubc.ca Office Phone: 604-822-6226 Room Number: GEOG 236 |
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Department of Geography - Faculty of Arts - The University of British Columbia |
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