writer and historian

News Archive

November 5, 2018 STEM Stars,” Lafayette News

October 26, 2018 “‘Musical Playground’ brings interactive chimes to the Karl Stirner Arts Trail,” The Lafayette (another link here)

October 24, 2018 Faculty Research Forum at Lafayette

October 12, 2018 “Siva Vaidhyanathan on Facebook and Other “Antisocial” Media,” Public Books

September 21, 2018 Veggies in the Community 2018 comes to a close (photo spread)

September 20, 2018 Comment on Nadia Berenstein’s “A Flavor You Can’t Forget” at The Hagley

August 16, 2018 Essay on The Profit of the Earth, H-Environment Roundtable Review

June 1-2, 2018 Acquired Tastes Workshop, Easton and Bethlehem, PA

April 30, 2018 "The History of the Future," for Best Society, Lafayette

April 18, 2018 "Networking Hunger," Earth Week at Lafayette

March 15, 2018 "Capitalists, Experts, and the Food Supply since 1850," at ASEH, Riverside, CA

February 17, 2018 Presentations at the LVAIC Sustainability Conference, Easton, PA

January 25, 2018 "Fake Food," Lafayette News

January 17, 2018 "Feeding Tomorrow's Pards," Lafayette News

December 15, 2017  Final capstone project reports hosted here for EGRS 451: Capstone Seminar in Engineering and Society

December 7, 2017 "Artifice, Nature, and Con Men," "Artifice, Nature, and Con Men," Boston Alumni

November 16, 2017 Roundtable on Puerto Rico, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Lafayette College

October 30, 2017 The 2017 Candy Hierarchy, BoingBoing.net (and at SCQ)

October 6, 2017 "LaFarm Quad Farmer's Market," The Lafayette

October 3, 2017 "Fruits of Labor," at Lafayette News

September 8, 2017 "Greening Lafayette: A Model for Building Sustainable Community"

April 24, 2017 "Jill Lepore on the Challenge of Explaining Things," Public Books

April 18, 2017 In conversation with ecologist George Woodwell for Lafayette's Earth Week

April 11, 2017 Hosting McCabe & Mrs. Miller screening for Faculty Favorites Film Series

March 31, 2017 ASEH Conference (Chicago, IL)

March 10, 2017 Stop Making Sense, Workshop at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia, PA)

February 23, 2017 Guest on the hit podcast re:mixtape on WJRH

February 4, 2017 "Writing and Sustainability," Moravian Writer's Conference (Bethlehem, PA)

February 2, 2017 Guest on I've Made a Huge Mistake with Darren Husted

December 15, 2016  Final podcasts hosted here at SoundCloud for FYS-18: Ten Ways to Know Nature

December 14, 2016 Alternative Future Environmental Realities, Fa' 16 projects in Technology & Nature

December 13, 2016  Final capstone project reports hosted here for EGRS 451: Capstone Seminar in Engineering and Society

October 31, 2016 The 2016 Candy Hierarchy, BoingBoing.net (and The AV Club)

October 29, 2016 Final Food in the Public Square Community Conversation, Bethlehem, PA

October 24, 2016 The 2016 Candy Hierarchy Survey, BoingBoing.net

October 24, 2016 "Food Justice and Flood Zones," at Food in the Public Square page

July 24, 2016 Food in the Public Square Forum on Kitchens, Cooking, and Local Food, Bethlehem, PA

July 1, 2016 Pleased to have gotten help from How To Do Everything, Episode 248.

June 21, 2016 "How a Musical Playground Will Spring from Students' Work," Lehigh Valley Express-Times

May 20, 2016 What's Your Food Story, with Julie Guthman, Workshop for the Food in the Public Square project

May 14, 2016 "Forests and Trees, and Food," at Food in the Public Square page

May 11, 2016 Alternative Future Environmental Realities, Sp' 16 projects in Technology & Nature

May 10, 2016 The Karl Stirner Arts Trail Musical Playground, final presentation for Sp' 16 Sustainable Solutions

May 8, 2016 Final projects for History of Technology hosted here

April 12, 2016 "Food as a Means...," at Food in the Public Square page

"How to Police Your Food":

April 9, 2016 at the Organization of American Historians, Providence, RI

March 8, 2016 at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA

February 26, 2016 "Teaching with Podcasts (workshop)," at Lafayette

February 20, 2016 LVAIC Sustainability Conference (various), at Lehigh

January 12, 2016 "Greening Lafayette," at Lafayette News

December 17, 2015 New homepage for Various Breads and Butters (to pair with it's Twitter account)

December 16, 2015  Final podcasts hosted here at SoundCloud for FYS-18: Ten Ways to Know Nature

December 14, 2015  Final capstone project reports hosted here for EGRS 451: Capstone Seminar in Engineering and Society

December 14, 2015 "Humanities in the Public Square: Regional Food Systems," part of an NEH grant with NCC

December 10, 2015 "How to Police Your Food" at the Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE

December 4, 2015 "Baltimore in the World: Food Systems from 1800 to Today," Think Local, Act Regional Workshop, Baltimore, MD

December 4, 2015 "Various Musings and Miscellany," The Lafayette

November 16, 2015 "Food for Thought" about campus food and farm studies at Lafayette

November 13, 2015 "STS in the Fields," conference talk at 4S, Denver, CO

November 2, 2015 "Stratigraphical Analysis of Friday-Sunday Indicators...," at SCQ [co-authored with S. Tonev]

October 31, 2015 The 2015 Candy Hierarchy, BoingBoing.net

October 23, 2015 The Candy Hierarchy Survey, BoingBoing.net

August 30, 2015 "Podcasting the Academy...," Inside Higher Ed

June 10, 2015  “Against technocratic environmentalism,” Aeon Ideas

May 27, 2015  “How to Police Your Food” at Drexel University

April 14, 2015  “A Young Venn Heads to the Diagram Convention,” at the SCQ

March 29, 2015  “Dale Peck Reviews Einstein’s Latest,” in the Science Creative Quarterly, Vol. 1 [originally here]

 March 28, 2015  "The Veggie Van” exhibit at Just Food? conference, Harvard Law School

March 20, 2015  Essay on The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, H-Environment Roundtable Review

March 19-21, 2015  ASEH (various sessions) in Washington

December 16, 2014  “Best, Worst, or Only: Hanukah Film Edition,” at McSweeney’s

December 10, 2014  Final podcasts hosted here at SoundCloud for FYS-18: Ten Ways to Know Nature

December 8, 2014  Final capstone project reports hosted here for EGRS 451: Capstone Seminar in Engineering and Society

November 25, 2014  Digital Humanities Projects at Lafayette with updates on purefood.lafayette.edu

November 10, 2014  “Should the FDA regulate ‘natural’?” in the NYT

October 31, 2014  The 2014 Candy Hierarchy at BoingBoing (and SCQ)

October 30-31, 2014 "Green Capitalism” conference at the Hagley Museum, Newark, DE

October 23, 2014  “The Appearance of Being Earnest,” at The Appendix

October 15, 2014  The Candy Hierarchy survey at BoingBoing.net

October 7, 2014  Digital Humanities & GIS Mapping, Noon, Skillman Library

October 6, 2014  “Teaching with Technology,” Noon, Skillman Library

September 19-20, 2014  Roethke Festival of Environment and the Arts: “A Place for Fracking?,” on the 4rd St. Arts Campus (here too)

September 17, 2014  New article: “STS and Ethics,” in Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering[with Stephen Cutcliffe]

July 21, 2014  Spring’s student-authored book, Resetting the Table in the Lehigh Valley, now available as a pdf

July 19, 2014  “Is that food pure and natural?” for Alumni Summer College

July 17, 2014 First day for LaFarm’s Farm Stand at Gilbert’s on campus

July 17, 2014 Veggie Van returns to Easton’s West Ward (see here and here)

June 4, 2014 “Podcasts, Students, Publics,” forLVAIC Digital Tools, Muhlenberg College

May 20, 2014 CHASES Workshop on the Environmental History of the South, at Mississippi St.

May 10, 2014 Final projects for History of Technology hosted here

April 15, 2014 Hosting Gary Nabhan for Earth Month, 7:30pm, Oechsle 224

April 15, 2014 Favorite poem reading day on campus. I read this one.

April 7, 2014 Screening of Renewal, followed by film discussion, 7 pm, Oechsle 224

March 28, 2014 Smart Humor Night” with McSweeney’s writers John Warner and Teddy Wayne, Colton Chapel, 8pm

March 18, 2014 First two books are out (on The Commons and German Environmentalism) in History for a Sustainable Future series at MIT Press

March 16, 2014This Morning Was a Poem: On Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby,” at Public Books

March 16, 2014Environmental History Slam,” at ASEH in San Francisco

March 4, 2014The Environmental Biography of an Adulterant,” research talk at U. Delaware

March 3, 2014None of the Above,” Irregular Lunch Series, Skillman Library

February 27, 2014 Commenter for Creating a Common Table in the Lafayette Book Forum, Skillman Library

February 8, 2014 "LaFarm and Sustainability” at the LVAIC Sustainability Conference, Bethlehem, PA

December 23, 2013 Interview of Peter Galison in Public Culture [pdf]

December 9, 2013 Final projects (podcasts) for the First Year Seminar “Ten Ways to Know Nature” are here

December 6, 2013 Final projects for the Capstone Seminar in Engineering and Society (EGRS 451) are here

November 16, 2013 “Food, Farms and Citizenship” session at Our Beloved Community, Kirby Hall

November 14, 2013Lehigh Valley Food Forum, Nurture Nature Center, for the Buy Fresh, Buy Local Food Assessment Report

November 10, 2013 The Assessment Report on Lehigh Valley Local Food Economy is available here

October 31, 2013 What’s with the Chipotle Scarecrow ad?”, a discussion on factory farming, Oechsle 224

October 30, 2013 And again: The 2013 Candy Hierarchy

October 11, 2013  Teaching and Community Engagement Roundtable, 104 Scott Hall

October 1, 2013 With all due hesitation, my acting debut

July 12, 2013 Students Propose Solutions to Dangerous College Hill Intersection,” at Lafayette.edu

June 17, 2013Items from the NYT ‘Meh List’ or Things in Front of Me Right Now?” at McSweeney’s

June 8, 2013 Workshop at Union College on Engineering and Liberal Education

May 23, 2013 Final mapping page for SP13’s “Technology & Nature” (EGRS/EVST 373) is available here.

May 20, 2013 Final projects for 2013’s Capstone Seminar on Engineering and Society (EGRS 451) are available at the class website.

May 7, 2013The Confidence Economy: An Interview with T.J. Jackson Lears,” at Public Books

April 17, 2013 Favorite Poem Day at Lafayette -- I read this one

April 15, 2013 Screening of A Place at the Table, 7 pm, Hugel Hall

April 4, 2013 “Cottonseed, Gilded Age Food, and Angst for the Natural,” at the ASEH meeting in Toronto

April 2, 2013 Roundtable review of Notes from the Ground, at H-Environment

March 20, 2013I Have a Few Disclaimers about My New Short Story,” at McSweeney’s

March 20, 2013 The Pure and the Adulterated,” Skillman Library, Lafayette College

March 16, 2013 Discussant at WHEATS, U. Penn

March 8, 2013 Interviewed in Bytes and Books, the library newsletter

February 27, 2013 Panelist for “Technology and the Future of the Classroom,” Scott Hall, Lafayette College

February 2, 2013 Food, the City, and Innovation Conference at UT-Austin

January 9, 2013Days at the Museum, Part 5,” at McSweeney’s

December 29, 2012 Generous new review of Technoscience and EJ--”extremely well-written”--in Social Science Journal

December 12, 2012 Final class projects (podcasts) for Fall 2012’s “FYS: Ten Ways to Know Nature” available here

November 16, 2012 Nice quote in Daniel Engber’s “Against Nature” at Slate

October 29, 2012 Behold: the 2012 Candy Hierarchy at BoingBoing

September 7, 2012All Praise the Civics of Food Hubs” at Civil Eats

July 20, 2012The Historical Production (and Consumption) of Unsustainability,” in The Hedgehog Review

June 19, 2012Environmentally Just Transformations of Expert Cultures,” in Environmental Justice

June 15, 2012An Open Letter to the State of Pennsylvania,” at McSweeney’s

June 14, 2012Interdisciplinary Technology Course Blends Engineering and Policy Studies,” at the Lafayette webpage

June 6-7, 2012 “Citizenship and the Good World” conference at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, Charlottesville, VA

May 4, 2012  Final projects for EGRS 451 (the Capstone Seminar) all available at the class’s new website

April 23, 2012 Questions about Fruits and Labors,” a brownbag lunch discussion on Food Justice, 12 pm, at Lafayette

April 13, 2012 New review of Technoscience and EJ--”a valuable resource”--in Organization & Environment

April 12, 2012 Second speaker in Lafayette’s Forum on Technology and the Liberal Arts: M. McCaughey, 7 pm

March 30, 2012 Honest, Serendipity, and the Spice Mill,” at the Hagley Museum

March 28, 2012 “Farms, Fields, and Forests”  at ASEH Conference, Madison, WI

March 23, 2012 Great new review of Technoscience and EJ in Chemical Heritage Magazine

March 22, 2012 First speaker in Lafayette’s Forum on Technology and the Liberal Arts: M. Wisnioski, 7 pm

March 16, 2012 From the Earth: The Environment in Virginia’s Past & Future,” Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA

March 2, 2012 Lecture on Innovative Teaching and Student Projects, University of Scranton

February 17, 2012 First review of Technoscience & EJ (“recommended”) from Choice Reviews

February 10, 2012 New review of Notes (a good one) from Organization & Environment

December 19, 2011 Final website projects for Fall 2011’s “The Governance of Technology: An Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy”

December 16, 2011:  A profile over at the Lafayette homepage

December 6, 2011: A letter (short personal essay) in the new issue of McSweeney’s Quarterly (#39).

November 5, 2011: Food Studies and STS roundtable at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) conference

October 31, 2011: The Candy Hierarchy returns over at BoingBoing

October 26, 2011: Campus Sustainability Day talk on “An Ecology of Food and Agriculture,” 12-1 pm, on campus here at Lafayette

October 3, 2011: Adulteration and butter article over at Good Magazine (though not by me)

October 2, 2011: Notes from a Native New Yorker, a post about NFTG at the Yale blog

August 25, 2011: New review of Notes (“great fun to read”) in the Journal of Southern History

August 19, 2011: Technoscience and Environmental Justice released

June 29, 2011: Pre-print of “Analysis as Border Patrol,” a new article in Endeavour

June 22, 2011:Trust Me,” an essay on adulteration and confidence at The Morning News

June 16, 2011: Small Details in Morven Horse Barn Lead to Big Energy Ideas,” at UVA Today (about the Morven Summer Institute)

June 1, 2011: Micro-interview of Peter Galison in The Believer’s June issue

May 23, 2011: “Choosing Food,” on WMRA’s Virginia Insight

May 13, 2011: The Consequences of Dinner,” a profile of sorts about local food studies in U.Va. Magazine

April 19, 2011: Food Collaborative’s Q&A panel and screening of Black Gold

April 18, 2011: New review of Notes in Environmental History

April 14, 2011: Local Food Contrarians, Or,  Environmentalism as Carbon Accounting,” at Grist.org

March 17, 2011: Living Rural and Eating Local” panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book

March 16, 2011: Flash Seminar on “The Politics of Food” at U.Va.‘s Morven Farm

March 14, 2011: Food Anxieties” workshop and forum at UC-Santa Cruz

March 7, 2011: A kind review of Notes, this one in Agricultural History

March 3, 2011: Food Collaborative co-hosting Gary Nabhan’s talk, “Climate Change and Place-based Food

March 1, 2011: Three new reviews of Notes, in Technology & Culture, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and Isis

February 13, 2011: The Food Collaborative is co-hosting Four-Season Harvest’s Eliot Coleman at Hereford Residential College

January 21, 2011: January Term Class Tackles Local Food Hub Challenges

January 6, 2011: UVA Today story, “Two Courses Examine the Technology and the Politics of Food

January 3-14, 2011: STS 2500: “History, Technology, and Sustainable Agriculture” during J-Term. 

November 21, 2010: A new exhibit with photographs by Caroline Higgins now up in the Thornton Hall Art Gallery. 

November 20, 2010: New episode of Meet the Farmer TV, #77, spotlights the Food Collaborative. 

November 7, 2010: Queen of the Sun is playing at the Virginia Film Festival, at 11:30 am—I’m introducing and leading discussion of it

November 3, 2010: Speaking about Notes as part of the Faculty Author Series at the Colonnade Club, Noon-1 pm

October 7, 2010: Moderating a panel on local food and the media hosted by the UVA Food Collaborative, 4-6 pm

September 24, 2010: A great new review of Notes in the Journal of American History

September 14, 2010: Interview at Couteaux Review, a DC-based culinary magazine with a sustainability focus

September 11, 2010: Relay Foods tent at this year’s Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, 1-2 pm

September 9, 2010: Screening of Fresh at 7 pm in 108 Clark, co-hosted by Hereford College and The Food Collaborative, with discussion to follow

August 30, 2010: First meeting of The Food Collaborative this semester, Noon, at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture

August 22, 2010: New article now out (on-line pre-print) in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, part of a special issue I co-edited on the common histories of soil science and geology

August 5, 2010: A letter (a short personal essay, more or less) in the new issue of McSweeney’s Quarterly (#35)

July 2, 2010: More book discussions in the UVA Today story “Summer Reading

June 17, 2010: UVA Today story on “Books for Fathers and Sons

June 16, 2010: Nest,” a suburban nature essay of sorts, at The Morning News

June 5, 2010:Dot Days” at the Charlottesville Farmer’s Market, with The UVA Food Collaborative

April 20, 2010: Agricultural Acts: On the Future of Farming and Food” at SUNY-Morrisville and Colgate University

April 18, 2010: What is Sustainability” Earth Week Forum at U.VaS.