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Department of

History

Colin Fisher, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, History

Colin Fisher, Ph.D., conducts research in the field of U.S. environmental history. He offers classes in environmental history, history of the American West, and public history.

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Irvine; History 
B.A., Lawrence University, History 

Scholarly and Creative Work

Fisher’s work explores the relationship between “natural” spaces (particularly in cities) and the politics of class, ethnicity, nation, and race. He is currently finishing a book (Urban Green: A Social History of Nature in Chicago) that illustrates the passion with which immigrants, African Americans, and working-class Chicagoans pursued leisure in nature. The book not only documents a hidden history of hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, picnicking, gardening, pet-keeping in and around Chicago, it also illuminates how minority communities used natural spaces to imagine subaltern identities. 

He also has a forthcoming historiographical article on the place of race in U.S. environmental history: "Race and U.S. Environmental History," in A Companion to American Environmental History, ed. Douglas Sackman (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2009).

Other work includes an article on competition for natural space and the 1919 Chicago race riot (“African Americans, Outdoor Recreation, and the 1919 Chicago Race Riot,” in "To Love the Wind and the Rain": Essays in African American Environmental History, ed. Dianne Glave and Mark Stoll (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005) and numerous book reviews, review essays, and encyclopedia articles. 

Teaching Interests

Fisher is a committed teacher who enjoys cultivating a critical understanding of the past among his students. He teaches classes on environmental history, history of the American West, and public history (as well as lower-division surveys of U.S. history).