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Research Activities

Almost a decade ago, biologist E. O. Wilson declared that our 21st century would become "the era of restoration in ecology". Delegates of the 1998 World Wilderness Congress reiterated that our new century must become the "Century of Restoring the Earth". In my research projects, I am exploring the background and prospects of this restoration movement. I ask if this is an entirely new movement, and if so, have there been other styles of restoration across time and place? What are the different assumptions about ideal and damaged land that determine the restorative process, and how can we use this knowledge to improve the way we restore and renature? Can exotic species belong in properly restored landscapes, or what is the meaning of NATIVE? Is it possible to "rewild" - or more importantly, is it desirable to do so - and who stands to gain or lose in the rewilding process? Because impoverished and abandoned land is the fastest growing class of land globally, much basic research is needed about the processes that will help restore these areas.

2004-05: Council of American Overseas Research Centers (COARC) is sponsoring my research, "DDT, Health Organizations, and Imperial Environmentalism". The Mediterranean's DDT experience following World War II provides an excellent case for exploring ethical and political questions surrounding environmental policies imposed from afar.

2003-04: Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs sponsored my project, "Fighting Malaria in Sardinia".   >> project description

Workshops

2006: Restoring or renaturing? The presence of the past in ecological restoration

Education, Positions, and Awards

Education
1999	Ph.D., Environmental Studies (Environmental History), University of Wisconsin-Madison. DISSERTATION: "American Nature, Italian Culture: Restoring the Land in Two Continents". - awarded the Rachel Carson Prize as the best doctoral dissertation in environmental history (Am. Soc. Env. History, 2000)
1990	M.A., History of Science, U. of Wisconsin-Madison
1981	B.A., Biological Sciences, Stanford University
Positions
2004-05	Fellow, Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)
2003-04	Fellow, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
2001-04	Postdoctoral Fellow, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
2000-01	Jean Monnet Postdoctoral Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy Lecturer, seminar: "Nature in History / History in Nature"
1999-00	German Marshall Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy Lecturer, seminar: "Science and Environment: Historical Perspectives"
1997-98	Dissertation scholarship recipient, Gladys Delmas Foundation for Venetian Studies, NY
1996-97	Lecturer, History Department, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA  Lecturer, course:  "American Environmental History"  Lecturer, seminar:  "Global Environmental History"
1995-96	Teaching Assistant, Environmental Studies Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1994-95	U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Italy
1991-94	pre-dissertation student, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Awards & Grants
2007	Antoinette Forrester Downing Book Award presented by the Society of Architectural Historians to Earth Repair)
2004-05	Research Fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (Wash., D.C.)
2003-04	Research Fellowship in Environmental Values, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (NY)
2003	Rockefeller Archives Center grant
2002	Ray Allen Billington Prize (presented by the [U.S.] Western History Association for "Repairing Mountains: Restoration, Ecology, and Wilderness in Twentieth-Century Utah", Environmental History, 2001)
2000-01	Jean Monnet Postdoctoral Fellow
2000	Rachel Carson Prize (best doctoral dissertation in environmental history, presented by the American Society for Environmental History)
1999-00	German Marshall Postdoctoral Fellow
1997-98	Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Grant for research in Venice and Veneto
1996	Forest History Society Research and Travel Award
1994-95	Fulbright Scholarship to Italy
1995	University of Wisconsin-Madison Environmental Studies Travel Award
1994	University of Wisconsin-Madison European Studies Pre-dissertation Award

Publications

Hall, Marcus, ed., Restoration and History: The Search for a Usable Environmental Past. New York & London: Routledge (in press).

Marco Armiero & Marcus Hall, eds., Nature and History in Modern Italy. Athens: Ohio University Press (in press).

Hall, Marcus. 2009. "World War II and the Axis of Disease.". In: Charles Closmann, ed., War and the Environment: Military Destruction In the Modern Age. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

Bürgi, Matthias, Anna M. Hersperger, Marcus Hall, Emily W. B. (Russell) Southgate, and Nina Schneeberger. 2007. "Using the Past to Understand the Present Land Use and Land Cover." In: F. Kienast, et al., eds., A Changing World: Challenges for Landscape Research (Springer): 133-144.

Hall, Marcus. 2006.Creatures that don't belong: confronting the exotic species 'problem' in the Mediterranean. In: Marco Armiero (ed.) Views from the South: Environmental Stories from the Mediterranean World.

Hall, Marcus. 2005. Earth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville & London.

Hall, Marcus. 2004. "The Provincial Nature of George Perkins Marsh." In: Marcus Hall, ed., "The Nature of G. P. Marsh: Tradition and Historical Judgement", special issue of Environment and History10(2): 191-204.

Hall, Marcus. 2004. Short articles in the Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, edited by Shepard Krech III, John McNeill, & Carolyn Merchant (Berkshire/Routledge), 3v.:
    • "Ecological Restoration" co-authored with William Jordan III
    • "Italy" co-authored with Marco Armiero

Hall, Marcus. 2003. Introduction: Doing Environmental History in Environmental Studies Programs. The History Teacher37(1): 51-5.  

Hall, Marcus. 2003. "Editorial: The Native, Naturalized and Exotic - plants and animals in human history." Landscape Research 28(1), edited by Marcus Hall and Peter Coates. A special issue with contributing articles by Chris Smout, Donald Hughes, John McNeill, Thorkild Kjaergaard, Alix Cooper, Kenneth Olwig, Gert Gröning & Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, Karen Wonders, John Sheail, Lance van Sittert.  

Hall, Marcus. 2002. "Restoring the Mountains: Finding Blame for Piedmont's Floods. 18-20th century." In: Diboscamento montano e politiche territoriali: Alpi e Appennini dal Settecento al Duemila. Antonio Lazzarini, ed. Milan: FrancoAngeli.

Hall, Marcus. 2001. "Repairing Mountains: Restoration, Ecology, and Wilderness in Twentieth-Century Utah." Environmental History. 6(4): 574-601.  

Hall, Marcus. 2000. "Comparing Damages: American and Italian Concepts of Degradation." In: M. Agnoletti and S. Anderson, eds., Methods and Approaches in Forest History. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. Chapter 14: 145-52.

Hall, Marcus. 1998. "Ideas From Overseas: American Preservation and Italian Restoration." The George Wright Forum: A Journal of Cultural and Natural Parks and Reserves  15(2): 24-29.

Hall, Marcus. 1998. "Restoring the Countryside: George Perkins Marsh and the Italian Land Ethic (1861-1882)." Environment and History 4(1): 91-103.

Hall, Marcus. 1998. "The Early Restoration Movement." In: P. Sereno and M. L. Sturani, eds., Rural Landscape between State and Local Communities in Europe: Past and Present. Alessandria, Italy. Proceedings of the biannual European conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape. Alessandria, Italy. Edizioni dellíOrso, 227-36.

Hall, Marcus. 1997. "Co-workers With Nature: The Deeper Roots of Restoration." Restoration & Management Notes 15(2): 173-8.

Book reviews

Hall, Marcus. 2004. Review of Marco Armiero and Stefania Barca, Storia dell'Ambiente: Una Introduzione (Roma: Carocci Editore, 2004). In Environmental History 9(4).

Hall, Marcus. 2004. Review of Patrick Barron and Anna Re, eds., Italian Environmental Literature (NewYork: Italica Press, 2003). See H-Net Reviews online.

Hall, Marcus. 2004. Review of Edmund Russell, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge University Press, 2001).  Passato e Presente (63).

Hall, Marcus. 2001. "A Conversation with David Lowenthal", Review of David Lowenthal, George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of Conservation (Seattle: U. of Washington Press, 2000). Environmental History. 6(1): 118-22. 

last updated on 22.09.2009

© by Lilli Strasser Institut für Umweltwissenschaften [ 2005 ]