The Department of Geography is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Peter Alagona as an Affiliated Faculty member of the Department of Geography. Professor Alagona, an Assistant Professor of History and of Environmental Studies at UCSB, received his PhD from UCLA in 2006, joined UCSB in 2008, and has become an environmental historian and historian of science with additional interests and training in ecology, geography, and science and technology studies.
Peter’s research focuses on the histories of land use, natural resource management, environmental politics, and ecological science in the North American West and beyond. He has particular interests in wildlife, endangered species, and biological diversity, and he teaches undergraduate courses cross-listed in History and Environmental Studies, as well as graduate seminars in History. His current projects include a book manuscript, under advance contract with the University of California Press, entitled After the Grizzly: Endangered Species, Critical Habitat, and the Politics of Place in California; developing a collaborative, interdisciplinary project that will use the UC Natural Reserve System as a case study to explore the role of biological field stations in American environmental history, from 1950 to 2010; working with Scott Cooper, from the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, on a study to determine the historical distribution and abundance of steelhead, a federally listed endangered species, in the Santa Ynez River watershed; and working on a project to explore the changing relationships between the state and federal governments in American environmental history–and how previous historians have understood, or sometimes misunderstood, those relationships.
Affiliated faculty in the Department of Geography participate in instructional activities, including serving on MA and PhD committees, but they are salaried by other departments or institutions. The Department of Geography currently has 11 affiliated faculty, including this latest appointment. Welcome aboard, Prof. Alagona!
