DR. MICHAEL LEWIS
Chair, Department of Environmental Studies
Professor of Environmental Studies and History
Salisbury University
EDUCATION
Ph.D. American
Studies, concentration in Environmental History and 20th Century
U.S. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
May 2000.
Certificate in Interdisciplinary Rhetoric
of Inquiry
M. A. American Studies, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa,
Alabama.
December 1993.
B. A. Biology, with a minor in American
Studies, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee.
May 1992.
FACULTY AWARDS
Wilson H. Elkins Professorship of the University
System of Maryland, 2012-13
Outstanding Faculty Member, Student Government
Association, Salisbury University, 2011.
Outstanding Teaching Award, Fulton School of Liberal
Arts, Salisbury University, 2010.
Distinguished Faculty Award, Salisbury University, 2005.
PUBLICATIONS
American Wilderness. Editor, and author of chapters, “American
Wilderness,” and “Leopold’s Legacies: The Science of
Conservation.” New York: Oxford
University Press, 2007.
Inventing
Global Ecology: Tracking the U.S. Biodiversity Ideal in India, 1947-1997. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. (North American edition). Inventing Global Ecology: Tracking the U.S.
Biodiversity Ideal in India, 1945-1997. New Delhi: Orient Longman Press, 2003. (Asian and European edition).
Articles and Essays:
“Travelling Expertise: the USFWS in India, 1973-1997,” in preparation for
a special issue of Environment and
History.
“And
all was Light: Science and Environmental History,” in Andrew Isenberg, editor, The Oxford
Handbook to Environmental
History, New
York: Oxford University Press, expected fall 2013.
“Globalizing Nature: National
Parks, Tiger Reserves, and Biosphere Reserves in Independent India,” in
Patrick
Kupper, Sabine Hohler, and Bernhard Gissibl, editors, Civilising Nature: A
Global History of National Parks forthcoming: Oxford: Berghahn Books, fall
2012.
“Environmental Implications of Social Determinants of
Health,” in Sanjoy Bhattacharya, editor, Social
Determinants of Health: Assessing Policy, Theory and
Practice. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan
Press, 2010, 169-180.
“In and Out of the Field: Teaching Field History,” Journal of Urban History (special issue on pedagogy) 36, No. 1(January 2010), 68-80.
“Cattle and Conservation at Bharatpur: A Case Study in Science and
Advocacy,” Current Conservation 1, no. 1 (2008), 6.
“A Collaboration for all
seasons: Sálim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley,” in Salim Ali: A Treasure, V.S. Vijayan, ed. Salim Ali Foundation:
Coimbatore, India, 2007.
“A Call
for Social Ecology: A Review Essay,” Economic
and Political Weekly 41, no. 19 (December 9, 2006), 5052-53.
“Project
Tiger and Conservation Biology: A case study in transnational science,” Journal
of the History of Biology, 38, no. 2 (Summer,
2005): 185-207.
“Transformative Environmental History – The Future of
the Field,” Environmental History 10, no. 1 (January 2005): 53-55.
“Reflections on Teaching Environmental History: This
Class will write a Book – an experiment in pedagogy,” Environmental History 9,
no. 4 (October 2004): 604-619.
“Cattle and Conservation at Bharatpur: A Case Study in
Science and Advocacy,” Conservation and Society 1, no. 1 (2003): 1-21.
“Scientists or Spies? Ecology in a Climate of Cold War Suspicion,” Economic
and Political Weekly 37, no. 24 (June 15, 2002): 2323-2332.
“Stitching Together Meaning: Sarah Jane
Kimball, Fancywork, Class and Consumption,” Annals
of
Iowa 59 no. 2 (Spring, 2000): 141-164.
“Seeing the World Whole: An
Interview with William Cronon,” Iowa
Journal of Cultural Studies 18
(1999):
1-10.
“Tiger
Tourism,” with Paul Greenough. Student
Travels Magazine, (Spring 1999): 27.
“From Science to Science Fiction: Leo Szilard and Fictional Persuasion,” in The Writing on the Cloud,
Allison
Smith, ed., University Press of America, 1997.
Book Reviews:
“Book
Review: Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global
Conservation and Native Peoples,” Global
Environmental Politics 10, no. 2 (2010), 122-4.
“Book Review: Smallholders and Stockbreeders: Histories of Foodcrop
and Livestock Farming in Southeast Asia,” Environmental History 11, no. 3 (July 2006), 632-33..
“Book
Review: Health, Medicine, and Empire,” Modern Asian Studies 37,
no. 2 (2003), 509-511.
“Book
Review: Situating Social History,” Modern Asian Studies 37, no. 1
(2003), 255-256.
“Book Review: A Carnival
for Science: Essays on Science, Technology, and Development,” Iowa
Journal of Cultural Studies 18 (1999): 119-121.
CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTATIONS
“Tigers, Pandas and Snow Leopards: Transnational
Conservation and the State,” Intersections:
New
Approaches to
the History of Science in India and China, King’s College, London, April 12-14, 2012.
“Towards Transnational
Environmental History: Considering India,” Intersections:
New Approaches to
the History of
Science in India and China, York
University, Canada, April 24-25, 2011.
“Travelling
Expertise: the USFWS in India, 1973-1997,” the first World Conference on
Environmental History, Copenhagen,
Denmark, August 4-8, 2009.
“Three Times A Protected Area: Biosphere Reserves, Project Tiger, and
National Parks in India,”
German Historical Institute
peer-reviewed workshop, Civilised Nature, Washington D.C., June 13-15,
2008.
“Roundtable: Tradeoffs and Compromises
(II): Environmental Historians in Environmental Studies Programs –
Institutional Setting,” American Society for Environmental history Annual
Conference, Boise, March 12-15, 2008.
“Roundtable: Teaching Urban History,”
session chair, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.,
January 3, 2008.
“For the Birds: The Cold War and an
Indo-US Ornithological Collaboration,” History of Science Society Annual
Meeting, Alexandria, November 3, 2007.
“Roundtable: Collaborations between
Environmental History and Conservation Biology: Tales of Two Societies?,”
American Society for Environmental history Annual Conference, St. Paul, March
29-April 1, 2006.
“Roundtable: Using Rivers to Teach
Integrated Environmental History,” American Society for Environmental History
Annual Conference, St. Paul, March 29-April 1, 2006.
“ ‘This Class will write a book’: An Experiment in Local
Environmental History and Pedagogy,” American Society for Environmental History
Annual Conference, Victoria, March 31-April 4, 2004.
“Roundtable:
Knowledge, Nature, Power and States: From Landscapes to Genomes in South Asia,”
Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference, San Diego, March 4-7. 2004.
“Marking Their Territory:
Neo-Imperialist Scientists, Nationalist Foresters, and Project Tiger,” American
Society for Environmental History Annual Conference, Providence, Rhode Island,
March 26-30, 2003.
“Ducks of Death?
The Strange Tale of Bharatpur Bird-Banding and Biological Warfare,” American
Society for Environmental History Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, March
20-24, 2002.
“The Development of Indian
Ecology and Conservation Policies: A Case Study for Transnational
Environmental
History,” European Society for Environmental History Biannual Conference, St.
Andrews University, Scotland, September 6-10, 2001.
“All Nature
Great and Small: The SLOSS Debate in Indian Environmental Policy,” American
Society for Environmental History Annual Conference, Durham, N.C., March 28-31,
2001.
“Commentary: Towards a National Vision of the
Chesapeake Bay,” The Chesapeake Bay in the 21st Century Conference,
Salisbury, MD, October 16-21, 2000.
“American
Studies and the Future Abroad,” Mid-America American Studies Association, Kansas
City, MO, April 7-8, 2000.
“Who Will
Care For Baby Bertel?: Gender and Imperialism in the
Philippines, 1917-1918,” Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry Conference on Justice
and Caring, Iowa City, IA, January 30, 1999.
“Ecology as
an American Export,” United States Educational Foundation, India, Mid-Year
Conference, Fort Aguada, Goa, India, February 1-4, 1998.
“The Person behind the
Passive Voice: reflections on the use of ethnography in the history of
science,”
Mid-America
American Studies Association, Minneapolis, MN, April 25-27, 1997.
“National(ist) Science in a Globalizing World,” Great Lakes
American Studies Association, Bloomington, IN, February 10-11, 1997.
“The
Rhetoric of Persuasion: Leo Szilard and Science Fiction,” America Confronts the
Atomic Age Conference, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, OH, June 27-30,
1995.
“Apocalypse Now: 2012 in
History and Culture,” Adventures in
Ideas: Salisbury Humanities Series,
Salisbury
University, March 3, 2012.
“Saving
the Tiger?: Conservation Lessons from India,” Salisbury University Distinguished Faculty
Series, Salisbury University, February 23, 2011.
“Inventing
Global Ecology, reprised,” Gallatin
School of Interdisciplinary Studies, New York University,
April 5, 2010.
“Commentary:
Imperial Ecology,” Terrestrial
Environments and their Histories in Modern India, Yale
University, May 1-2, 2009.
“An Environmental History Response to ‘Closing the
Gap,’” The World Health Organization and
the
Social Determinants of Health: Assessing Theory,
Policy, and Practice, the University
College of London, November 25-28, 2008.
“Natural Resources and the Development of the
Eastern Shore of Maryland,” Delmarva Lecture Series,
Delmarva
Discovery Center, Pocomoke City, November 18, 2008.
“Is there such a thing as Indian Science?” Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary
Studies, New York
University, October 27,
2008.
“Commentary: Reading the
Landscape,” American Studies Department
Community Seminar, University of Alabama, January 26, 2008.
“Grasping a Tiger by the Tail: the Establishment of
Project Tiger and the Politics of Conservation,” Environmental Policy Roundtable, University of Maryland-College
Park, October 26, 2007.
“Globalization and Indian Conservation Science,” Gallatin School of
Interdisciplinary Studies, New York University, October 22, 2007.
"Conservation and
Global Ecology," Undergraduate Seminar, University of Iowa, May
30-31, 2006.
“The Development of ‘Indian’ Ecology: Questioning the relevance of the
Nation-State as Cultural Unit for 20th-Century Science,” Department
of History and Sociology of Science Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania,
February 9, 2004.
“Our Man In Delhi: The
Smithsonian Institution, Indira Gandhi, and Scientists as Policy
Advocates," South
Asia Studies Seminar, Cornell University, May 5, 2003.
“Salim Ali,
Dillon Ripley, and the Transnational Origins of Indian Ecology,” Industrial
Environments Seminar Series, Rutgers University, March 11, 2003.
“Scientific Internationalism
or Indian Nationalism? The Struggle for Control of Project
Tiger,” Southwest Colloquium, Arizona State
University, February 21, 2003.
“Salim Ali, S.
Dillon Ripley, and Indian Nationalism: The Political Limits of US-Indian
Ecological Collaboration,” Smithsonian Institution Archives
Research-in-Progress Seminar, Smithsonian Institution, January 16, 2003.
“The Environmental History of the Eastern Shore,” Eastern
Shore Leadership Institute, Horn Point Research Center, May 23, 2002.
“Designing Indian Nature Reserves,” Public Goods
and Public Bads in Nature: From Landscapes to Genomes in South Asia, Cornell
University, February 22-23, 2002.
“Preserving India's Biological Heritage: Debates over Biosphere Reserves, Sacred
Groves, and
Scientific
Theory,” South Asian Studies Seminar, University of Iowa, March 4, 1999.
DISTINCTIONS
·Outstanding Facult Award, Student Government
Association, Salisbury University, 2011
·Fulton School of Liberal Arts Excellence in Teaching
Award, Salisbury University, 2010.
·Distinguished Faculty Award,
Salisbury University, 2005.
·PACE Civic Engagement Seminar Professor Spring 2004, Spring 2009.
·Faculty Development Mentor Grant,
Salisbury University, 2001-2.
·Fulbright (India) Dissertation Research Fellowship,
1997-98.
·Seashore Dissertation Writing
Fellowship, 1999-2000. 1 of 6 fellowships offered by the
University of Iowa Graduate
College in the Liberal Arts for the final year of dissertation writing.
·Alexander Kern Dissertation Travel
Award, 1999. One award granted each year by the American Studies
Program, University of Iowa.
·T. Anne Cleary Dissertation Research Fellowship,
1997. A
University-wide competitive fellowship to support international research.
·University of Iowa Graduate College
Foreign Language Fellowship (Spanish), 1996.
·Graduate Council Fellowship,
University of Alabama, 1992-93.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
· Professor of Environmental Studies and History,
Salisbury University, Fall 2000-present.
Member of Graduate Faculty in History
·Visiting Assistant Professor of History, University of
Iowa, Spring 2000.
·Instructor, American Studies Department, University of
Iowa, 1996-97, 1998-99.
·Instructor, English Department, University of Iowa, Fall, 1995.
·Full-time substitute teacher for 8th grade
science teacher on maternity leave, Spring, 1994.
·Instructor, American Studies, University of Alabama, Spring, 1993.
SERVICE
National:
·Member, Board of Editors, Journal of Environmental Sciences and Studies
· Chair of the Program Committee for
the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History.
·Member of the Program Committee for
the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History.
·Peer reviewer for manuscripts from Oxford University
Press, Ohio University Press, Orient Longman Press, and Houghton and Mifflin.
· Peer reviewer for articles submitted to the journals:
Environmental History, Conservation and Society, Journal of Historical Geography, BioScience, and International
Social Science Review.
·Scholarship Review Committee Member, Rachel Carson
Scholars Program, Newton Marasco Foundation, 2007-2010
University:
·Chair of the Department of Environmental Studies,
2012-present
·Director of the SU Environmental Studies Program,
2004-2012
·Co-chair of Faculty search committee for an
Environmental Economist, 2011-12.
·Member of Faculty search committee for an
Environmental Political Scientist, 2011.
·Member of Faculty search committee for a US Historian,
2010-11.
· Member of Faculty Senate Long Range Academic Planning
Committee, 2006-11.
· Member of the University Strategic
Enrollment Planning Committee, 2007-11.
· Member of the Fulton School
Sustainability Committee, 2008-present.
·Member of the University Search
Committee for the Dean of the Fulton School, 2007-8.
· Member of the Environmental Studies Steering
Committee, S.U., Fall 2000-2003.
·Advisor for the SU Environmental Student Association, Fall 2000-2002.
·Chair of Faculty Senate Membership and Elections
Committee, January-December 2003, member Fall
2001-spring 2004.
·Faculty Representative to the University search
committee for the SU Housing Director, spring 2005.
·Faculty Leader for the Algonquin Orientation
Experience, Fall 2000, 2001, 2003.
·Co-Advisor for Phi Gamma Mu Honorary Society in the
Social Sciences, 2000-2005.
·Co-coordinator for the New Faculty Initiatives
program, 2001-2003.
·Member of ad-hoc committee planning faculty
development day for January, 2005.
·Participant in the Wicomico
County/SU Teaching American History grant workshops, giving lectures and
developing teaching modules for secondary school field trips, 2003-2006.
·Faculty Leader for Living-Learning Residence Hall
programs for Honors students and for Environmentalists, 2005-present.
Community:
·Appointed member of the Salisbury Mayor’s
Environmental Policy Task Force 2008-9.
· Appointed Member of the Salisbury
Mayor’s Sewage and Wastewater Action Team (SWAT) 2008-9.
· Salisbury University representative, Nanticoke
Watershed Alliance, 2009-present.
·Member of the Wicomico Creekwatchers, Spring
2002-present.
·Member of the Wicomico Environmental Trust
2002-present.
·Lectures for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation,
2003-present.
·Vice-chairman of the Pemberton Park
Advisory Board, January 2003-2008; member 2001-2008.
·Financial officer of the Pemberton Colonial and Historic
Fair, 2003-2006.
·Guest Lecturer for the SU IRP, spring 2005.