Bio
After earning his PhD at UCLA in 2006, Professor Alagona completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Stanford universities. Since arriving at UCSB in 2009, he has received several awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER grant and the Harold J. Plous Award for the UCSB College of Letters and Science’s most outstanding junior faculty member. Alagona is the author of more than three-dozen publications in the areas of environmental history, geography, philosophy, and policy—including After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California (UC Press, 2013).
Specialization
Environmental History, History of Science, Wildlife and Endangered Species, and California
Education
Ph.D., History, University of California, Los Angeles M.A., History, University of California Los Angeles M.A., Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara B.A., History, Northwestern University
Research
Peter Alagona'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 endangered species and biological diversity, and he is developing a new research and teaching initiative on the history of ideas about environmental change.
Endangered Species: For the past decade, most of my research has focused on the histories of wildlife and endangered species in California and the American West. This work produced a series of essays and a book, After the Grizzly, published by UC Press in 2013.
Steelhead: Over the past three years, I have worked on several research projects related to the history steelhead, a federally listed endangered fish species, along the West Coast of the United States.
Biological Field Stations: I am currently conducting a collaborative, interdisciplinary project that uses 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.
Environmental Change: I am currently developing a new research and teaching initiative on the history of ideas about environmental change.