Michael J. Rawson
Graduate Deputy/ Professor
History
Location: 1119 Boylan Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x1166
Fax: 718.951.4504
Email:
Michael Rawson studied with William Cronon while earning his Ph.D. Before coming to Brooklyn College in 2007, he taught at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. Rawson is the author of Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston, which was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for History, and The Nature of Tomorrow: A History of the Environmental Future. He is also a member of the faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Education:
Ph.D. in History, University of Wisconsin - Madison - 2005 (History)
Areas of Expertise:
Michael Rawson specializes in environmental, urban, and cultural history and is particularly interested in how ideas about nature have shaped environmental change. He is currently working on a large-scale, narrative history of Boston.
Books and Publications
"Nature and the City: America's Urban Environment." A Companion to American Urban History. Ed. David Quigley. Blackwell Publishing. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2022
The Nature of Tomorrow: A History of the Environmental Future. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2021
"Discovering the Final Frontier: The Seventeenth-century Encounter With the Lunar Environment." Environmental History. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2015
"The City as Hydraulic Machine: Mastering Water in Boston." A History of Water, Series 3, Vol. 1. From Jericho to Cities in the Seas: A History of Urbanization and Water Systems. Eds. Terje Tvedt and Terje Oestigaard. I.B. Tauris.
(Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2014
"The March of Bricks and Mortar." Environmental History 17.4, October. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2012
"A Horse Is a Horse of Course--But Also Much More: Recovering the Animal Contribution to the Urbanization and Industrialization of America," review essay. Journal of Urban History. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2011
"Gendered Waters: Boston Common's Frog Pond Fountain." Water Fountains in the Cityscape. Eds. Ari Hynynen, Petri Juuti and Tapio Katko. Public Works Historical Society. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2011
"Rethinking Conservation: The Nineteenth-Century Battle to Save Boston Harbor." New England: A Landscape History. Eds. Richard Judd and Blake Harrison. MIT Press. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2011
Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2010
"What Lies Beneath: Science, Nature, and the Making of Boston Harbor." Journal of Urban History 35.5, July. Reprinted in Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings. Eds. Anthony Penna and Conrad Wright. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2009
"On Common Ground: The Overlapping Fields of Environmental History and Planning History," review essay. Journal of Planning History 7.4, November: 354-60. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2008
"Plagiarism: Curricular Material for History Instructors." American Historical Association website (www.historians.org). January. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2005
"The Nature of Water: Reform and the Antebellum Crusade for Municipal Water in Boston." Environmental History 9, July: 411-35. (Winner of the 2005 Michael Robinson Award from the Public Works Historical Society for the best article in the field of public works history). (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2004
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
CUNY Book Completion Award (Awards and Honors) 2019
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2019-20. (Awards and Honors) 2019
Award for Outstanding Director of Graduate Studies, Brooklyn College. (Awards and Honors) 2016
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2016-17. (Awards and Honors) 2016
Brooklyn College School of the Humanities and Social Sciences Grant, 2015-16. (Grants and Fellowships) 2015
Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities Fellowship, 2014-15. (Grants and Fellowships) 2014
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2013-14. (Grants and Fellowships) 2013
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2012-13. (Grants and Fellowships) 2012
Abel Wolman Book Award, Public Works Historical Society. (Awards and Honors) 2011
Feliks Gross Endowment Award for Outstanding Research, CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences. (Awards and Honors) 2011
Finalist, Julia Ward Howe Book Award, Boston Authors Club. (Awards and Honors) 2011
Finalist, Pulitzer Prize for History. (Awards and Honors) 2011
Honor Book Award, Historic New England. (Awards and Honors) 2011
Honorable Mention, Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book, Urban History Association. (Awards and Honors) 2011
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2011-12. (Grants and Fellowships) 2011
Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching, 2009-10. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
Stewart Travel Award, CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
PSC-CUNY Research Award, 2008-09. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
Course Development Grant, Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West, Stanford University. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
Michael Robinson Award, Public Works Historical Society. (Awards and Honors) 2005
Stanford University Humanities Fellowship. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005
Carter Manny Award, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. (Awards and Honors) 2003
Mary C. Mooney Fellowship, Boston Athenaeum. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003
Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society. (Grants and Fellowships) 2002
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"Progress." Common Places: Keywords for a More than Human World, University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin, April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2022
"'The Destruction of Boston Harbor': Lessons from a Nineteenth-Century Environmental Crisis." Envisioning Future Resilience Scenarios for the Boston Harbor Islands, Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts, September. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
"The Environmental History of the Future." Workshop on Modern American History, Princeton University. Princeton, New Jersey, April.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"The History of Boston's Water System." Boston Bar Association. Boston, MA, April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"The Lessons of Nineteenth-Century Boston Harbor." Mellon Forum for Research on the Urban Environment, Princeton University. Princeton, New Jersey, November. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2016
"The Nature of Tomorrow: Past Visions of the Environmental Future." Wolfe Institute for the Humanities Symposium. Brooklyn College, NY, April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2016
"Discovering the Final Frontier: The Seventeenth-century Encounter With the Lunar Environment." American Historical Association Annual Meeting. New York, January. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2015
"Imagining the Colonial Landscape: Anticipatory Geographies and the Transformation of Indigenous Spaces" chair and commentary. American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C., March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2015
"Designing With Nature: An Environmental Historian's Perspective." Cambridge Talks, Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Cambridge, Mass., April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2014
"Discovering the Final Frontier." New York Metro Seminar on Environmental History. New York, October. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2013
"Landscape, History, and the Lessons of Nineteenth-century Boston Harbor." Clark University Graduate School of Geography. Worcester, Mass., February. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2013
"The Lessons of Nineteenth-century Boston Harbor." Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education, University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Baltimore, March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2013
"Eden on the Charles." Presidential Scholars and Macaulay Honors College Welcome Dinner. Brooklyn College. March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"Land Ethics for the Landless: Refiguring Aldo Leopold for the Urban Age" chair and commentary. American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting. Madison, Wis., April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Nature, Cities, and History." Phi Alpha Theta Address. University at Albany (SUNY). April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"Sustainability and the History of Environmental Dreaming." Sustainability Council. University at Albany (SUNY). April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2012
"The Environmental History of Urban Peripheries" chair and commentary. Urban History Association Bi-Annual Meeting. New York, October. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"City, Nature, Utopia: Environmental Thought in Historical Perspective." Whiting Foundation Seminar, Ethyl R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities, Brooklyn College. March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Eden on the Charles." Metropolitan Waterworks Museum. Boston, July. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston." Bowdoin College. Brunswick, Maine, February. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston." Engaging Metropolitan Environments Visiting Scholar Series, Rutgers University. New Brunswick, N.J., April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Nature and Utopia in the Scientific Revolution." American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting. Phoenix, April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
Rawson, Michael and Christopher Ebert. "Reflections on Developing Program-Level Learning Assessment in a History Department." Assessment in the Social Sciences: Challenges and Opportunities. City University of New York. March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"'The Sacred Soil of Boston Common': Animals, Filth, and the Origins of the Public Park in America." New York Metro American Studies Association Annual Conference. New York, December. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston." Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass., December. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"Hydraulic Myths, Hydraulic Realities: The Lessons of Nineteenth-Century Boston Harbor." Public Works Historical Society Annual Meeting. American Public Works Association International Public Works Congress and Exposition. Boston, August. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"Thinking Nature, Making Cities." 2010 CUNY Environmental Sciences Forum. New York, November. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2010
"Urbs in Horto: New Directions in Urban Environmental History," roundtable. American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting. Portland, Ore., March. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Social Constructions of Nature and the Creation of the American City." U.S. Intellectual History Annual Conference. New York, November. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
"The Power of Thought: Ideas of Nature and the Making of Nineteenth-century Boston." American Historical Association Annual Meeting. New York, January. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
"Town Planning and the Emergence of Metropolitan Boston," commentary. Society for American City and Regional Planning History Biennial Conference. Portland, Maine. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2007
"What Lies Beneath: Science, Nature, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Boston Harbor." Boston College. Newton, Mass. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
"Science, Nature, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Boston Harbor." Remaking Boston: The City and Environmental Change over the Centuries. Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2006
"Drawing a Line Between Country and City: The Cultural Significance of Municipal Division and Annexation in Nineteenth-Century Boston." Urban History Association Biennial Conference. Milwaukee. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2004
"The Nature of Water: Antebellum Reform and the Crusade for Municipal Water in Boston." Boston Environmental History Seminar. Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2004
"The 'War on the Cows' and the Enclosure of Boston Common." American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting. Providence, R.I. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2003
