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
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). 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.