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Home: Our Faculty: Brooklyn College Faculty:

Michael J. Rawson

Asst Professor   Department: History   Location: 503 Whitehead Hall   Phone: 718-951-5000 x1166   Fax: 718-951-4504   Email:

I received my B.A. in History from Tufts University and did my graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I studied with William Cronon, Paul Boyer, and Stanley Schultz. Before coming to Brooklyn College in 2007, I taught at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. I am currently working on an environmental history of nineteenth-century Boston. I will be on sabbatical for the 2009-2010 academic year. Education: Doctor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin - Madison - 2005 (History) Areas of Expertise: My current research focuses on U.S. social and cultural, environmental, and urban history. I am also beginning work on a new project that explores the intersection of environmental and utopian thought. Books and Publications "Gendered Waters: Boston Common's Frog Pond Fountain," in Ari Hynynen, Petri Juuti, and Tapio Katko, eds., Water Fountains in the Cityscape (in progress). (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2009 "Nature and the City: America's Urban Environment," in David Quigley, ed., A Companion to American Urban History (forthcoming from Blackwell Publishing). (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2009 "Rethinking Conservation: The Nineteenth-Century Battle to Save Boston Harbor," in Richard Judd and Blake Harrison, eds., New England: A Landscape History (forthcoming from MIT Press). (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2009 "What Lies Beneath: Science, Nature, and the Making of Boston Harbor," Journal of Urban History 35, no. 5 (July 2009), reprinted in Anthony Penna and Conrad Wright, eds., Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009). (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2009 Frederick Jackson Turner, History of the United States, 1865-1910, eds. William Cronon and Michael Rawson (under contract with the University of Washington Press). (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2009 The Nature of Boston: An Environmental History (forthcoming from Harvard University Press in Fall 2010). (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2009 "The Nature of Planning: Finding Common Ground between Environmental History and Planning History," review essay in Journal of Planning History 7, no. 4 (November 2008): 354-360. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2008 "Plagiarism: Curricular Material for History Instructors," January 2005, American Historical Association web site (www.historians.org). (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2005 "The Nature of Water: Reform and the Antebellum Crusade for Municipal Water in Boston," Environmental History 9 (July 2004): 411-35. (Winner of the 2005 Michael Robinson Award from the Public Works Historical Society for the best article in the field of public works history). (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2004 Awards, Honors and Fellowships Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching, 2009-2010. (Grants and Fellowships) 2009 PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2008-2009. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008 Course Development Grant, Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006 Michael Robinson Award, Public Works Historical Society. (Awards and Honors) 2005 Stanford University Humanities Fellowship. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005 Carter Manny Award, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. (Awards and Honors) 2003 Mary C. Mooney Fellowship, Boston Athenaeum. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003 Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society. (Grants and Fellowships) 2002 Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums "Social Constructions of Nature and the Creation of the American City," U.S. Intellectual History Annual Conference, New York City, November 2009. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009 "The Power of Thought: Ideas of Nature and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Boston," American Historical Association Annual Conference, New York City, January 2008. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009 "What Lies Beneath: Science, Nature, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Boston Harbor," History Department Dissertation Workshop, Boston College, Newton, Massachusetts. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007 Commentator, "Town Planning and the Emergence of Metropolitan Boston," Society for American City and Regional Planning History Biennial Conference, Portland, Maine. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2007 "Science, Nature, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Boston Harbor," Remaking Boston: The City and Environmental Change over the Centuries, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2006 "Drawing a Line between Country and City: The Cultural Significance of Municipal Division and Annexation in Nineteenth-Century Boston," Urban History Association Biennial Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2004 "The Nature of Water: Antebellum Reform and the Crusade for Municipal Water in Boston," Boston Environmental History Seminar, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2004 "The 'War on the Cows' and the Enclosure of Boston Common," American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting, Providence, Rhode Island. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2003