Dr. Jessica M. DeWitt
Environmental Historian, Editor, Digital Communications Strategist
EDUCATION
Ph.D., History, University of Saskatchewan, March 2019; Dissertation: “Middle Parks: Development of State and Provincial Parks in the United States and Canada, 1890-1990.”
M.A., History, University of Rochester, 2011; M.A. Thesis: “A Convergence of Conservation and Recreational Ideals: The Cook Forest State Park Campaign, 1910-1928.”
B.A., Summa Cum Laude, History, Bethany College WV, 2008; Senior Thesis: “A Lifestyle Off the Beaten Path: Cook Forest State Park and the Men and Women of Its Tourism Industry.”
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
– Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) Social Media Editor and Executive Member
April 2014- Present
– Certificate, CCL201x: International Climate Change Law and Policy, NewcastleX, The University of Newcastle
August 16, 2019
– Social Media Consultant, Canadian Medical Education Journal, University of Saskatchewan
November 2017 – August 2018
– Webmaster, Canadian Historical Association Graduate Student Committee
November 2017 – August 2018
– Media Officer, American Society for Environmental History Graduate Student Caucus
May 2017 – April 2018
– Webmaster, University of Saskatchewan HGIS Lab and Sustainable Farm Systems Project
September 2014-August 2018
– Special ASEH Presidential Appointee: Media Officer, American Society for Environmental History
February 2017- May 2017
– Editor and Chief, Folklore: Saskatchewan’s Yesterdays Personified, Magazine of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society
September 2014- August 2017
– Member and Social Media Assistant, American Society for Environmental History Graduate Student Caucus
September 2014- January 2017
– Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) New Scholars Representative
June 2014-June 2015
– Adobe InDesign – Introduction Course, University of Saskatchewan
August 19, 21, 2014
– Historical GIS Workshop and Seminar, Instructor: Geoff Cunfer, HGIS Lab at the University of Saskatchewan
September 2012- April 2013
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
State, Provincial, and National Parks
Environmental History
Conservation
Recreation
Tourism/Eco-Tourism
Urban Nature
Spatial History
Canadian and American West
US History
Contemporary Canadian History
Public History and Social Media
CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION
– “Pushing the Envelope: Doing Environmental History Differently,” Roundtable, World Congress of Environmental History, Oulu, Finland, August 2024
– “Tools for Change: A Conversation on Doing Environmental-Related Work in Innovative and Sustainable Ways,” Roundtable, American Society for Environmental History, March 2023 (Accepted, Cancelled)
– “Intersectional Environmental Feminisms in the Digital Space,” Roundtable, Feminist Digital Methods Conference and Events, Virtual, August 5, 2022
– “Early Career Environmental Historians for a Sustainable Academia,” European Society for Environmental History, Virtual, July 6, 2023
– “Environmental Humanities in Practice,” Roundtable, STREAMS 2021, Virtual, August 4, 2021
– “’Most of its Mental’: Extractive Nostalgia, Virtual Adventure, and White Masculinity in the Abandoned Mines Exploration Corner of YouTube,” American Society for Literature and Environment, Virtual, August 2021
– “Social Media and Environmental History,” Roundtable, American Society for Environmental History, Ottawa, Ontario, March 27, 2020 (Cancelled)
– “Canadian History 2.0: Intersections of Public and Digital History in the 21st Century,” Roundtable, Canadian Historical Association 2018 and Canadian Society for the Digital Humanities, University of Regina
May 28-30, 2018
– “Cultivating Abundance from a NiCHE Position: Using Social Media to Disseminate and Support Environmental History Scholarship,” Environmental Scholarship in the Public Interest, Memorial University
May 9-11, 2018
– ““Cd’A Indian Tribe wants Heyburn State Park Back”: An Examination of Federal, State, and Indigenous Environmental Conflict,” American Historical Association, Washington D.C.
January 4, 2018
– “Too Supportive Fostering Allied Behaviour on Social Media” with Sarah York-Bertram, Beyond 150: Telling Our Stories/Au-delà de 150: racontant nos histoires, Sponsored by Active History, Unwritten Histories, Canada’s History Society, and the Wilson Institute.
August 25, 2017
– “Average Man’s Wilderness: Algonquin and Its Timber,” Beyond 150: Telling Our Stories/Au-delà de 150: racontant nos histoires, Sponsored by Active History, Unwritten Histories, Canada’s History Society, and the Wilson Institute.
August 24, 2017
– “Social Media and Canadian History” Lead Organizer and Participant, Roundtable Sponsored by ActiveHistory.ca, Canadian Historical Association 2017, Ryerson University
May 2017
– “”Oh, that doesn’t count. You’ve got to have a park with water”: Visualizing the Flexibility of “Natural” in Pennsylvania’s State Parks,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, 2016, Shippensburg University
October 7, 2016
– “Tales of a Park Not Yet Created: The Fish Creek Provincial Park Questionnaire, 1974,” Canadian Historical Association, 2016, University of Calgary.
May 30-June 1, 2016
– “Middle Park Syndrome: Securing a Place for Provincial and State Park History in Canadian and US Conservation History,” American Society for Environmental History, Seattle
April 1, 2016
– “’Fortunately Our American Neighbours have been Experimenting’: Influences and Objectives During the Formative Years of the Albertan Park System, 1930-1960,” Western Canadian Studies Association 2015, University of Manitoba
November 5-7, 2015
– “’Unsurpassed Natural Setting for a Great City’: An Urban Renaissance, Point State Park, the Ohio River Valley, and the National State Park Movement,” New Paths in the Environmental History of North America and the Ohio Valley, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky
October 9, 2015
– Research Presentation, Beyond Borders: A Workshop on Transnationalism, University of Saskatchewan
September 11, 2015
– “Park Formation as Catalyst for Restoration: A Pennsylvania River’s Ecological Revivification,” Canadian Historical Association 2015 Meeting, University of Ottawa
June 3, 2015
– “Is All History Now Environmental History? The Anthropocene in Historical Context,” Lead Organizer and Participant, Special Roundtable Co-Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Association of Canada and the Canadian Historical Association, Congress 2015, University of Ottawa
June 2, 2015
– “Reviving the Distant Clarion: The Ecological Degradation and Expedient Restoration of Pennsylvania’s Clarion River,” American Society for Environmental History 2015, Washington, D.C.
April 2015
– “Parks For and By the People: Acknowledging the Role of Non-Elites in the Formation and Protection of State and Provincial Parks in the United States and Canada,” Environmentalism from Below: Appraising the Efficacy of Small-Scale and Subaltern Environmentalist Organizations, University of Alberta
August 7, 2014
– “Harvesting Nostalgia: A Historical Look at the Farm Park Concept and its Conflicting Function in Breaking Down and Strengthening the Barrier between Urban and Rural Life in North America,” Second World Congress of Environmental History, Guimarães, Portugal
July 2014
– “’Nearby and Natural’: Stretching the Definition of Nature in Ontario’s Bronte Creek Provincial Park and Pennsylvania’s Point State Park,” 2014 Canadian Historical Association Annual Meeting, Brock University
May 26, 2014
– “Softening the Divide Between Natural and Man-Made: Exploring the Flexible Definition of Nature in Two Urban State and Provincial Parks,” 2014 Fort Garry Lectures, University of Manitoba
May 2, 2014
– “’Nearby and Natural’: Stretching the Definition of Nature in Ontario’s Bronte Creek Provincial Park and Pennsylvania’s Point State Park,” NiCHE Prairie Environment Network Workshop, University of Saskatchewan
April 26, 2014
– “Provincial and State Park History and Its Connection to Contemporary Society,” Graduate Research Conference 2014, University of Saskatchewan
March 7, 2014
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
– Seminar Leader, Indigenous History in Canada: Education, Residential Schools, and Reconciliation, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
Term 2, 2018
– Sessional Lecturer, American History to 1865, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
Term 1, 2017
– Guest Lecturer, “Conquering the Digital Realm: Crafting the Historian’s Trade for the Digital Age,” HIST 498: Oral History, University of Saskatchewan
February 2, 2015
– Guest Lecturer, “North America’s Best Idea?: The Significance of National Parks in the American and Canadian West,” Imagining American and Canadian Wests, University of Saskatchewan
February 4, 2014
– Teaching Assistant, Post-Confederation Canada, University of Saskatchewan
Term 2 2013
– Guest Lecturer, “North America’s Best Idea?: The Significance of National Parks in the American and Canadian West,” Imagining American and Canadian Wests, University of Saskatchewan
February 12, 2013
– Teaching Assistant, Canadian History from the Pre-Contact Period to 1867, University of Saskatchewan
Term 1 2012.
– Teaching Assistant, The Americas, University of Saskatchewan
Term 1 and 2 2011-2012.
PUBLICATIONS
Book Chapters:
– Jonatan Palmblad and Jessica M. DeWitt, “Communicating Environmental History: Reaching Diverse Audiences through Online Forums,” in Routledge Handbook of Environmental History, eds. Emily O’Gorman, William San Martin, Mark Carey, and Sandra Swart (New York: Routledge, 2024).
– Jessica DeWitt, “Parks For and By the People: Acknowledging Ordinary People in the Formation, Protection, and Use of State and Provincial Parks,” in Environmental Activism on the Ground: Processes and Possibilities of Small Green and Indigenous Organizing, eds. Liza Piper and Jonathan Clapperton (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019).
– Jessica DeWitt, “#HIST274US: Reflecting on My Course Hashtag” in Beyond the Lecture: Innovations in Teaching Canadian History, eds. Andrea Eidinger and Krista McCracken, Open Library Press Books, https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/beyondlecture/.
Journal Articles:
– Jessica DeWitt, “Between Stewardship and Exploitation: Private Tourism, State Parks, and Environmentalism,” RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society: Environmental Knowledge, Environmental Politics (December 2016): 41-46.
Book Reviews:
– Jessica M. DeWitt, Review of Camping Grounds: Public Nature in American Life from the Civil War to the Occupy Movement. By Phoebe S. K. Young, Western Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, Issue 1, Spring 2023, Pages 73–74, https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whac098.
– DeWitt, Jessica M. Review of Authorized Heritage: Place, Memory, and Historic Sites in Prairie Canada, by Robert Coutts. Canadian Journal of History 56, no. 3 (2021): 427-429. muse.jhu.edu/article/841919.
– Jessica M. DeWitt; Watching over Yellowstone: The US Army’s Experience in America’s First National Park, 1886–1918. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2021; 52 (1): 139–141. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_r_01686
– DeWitt, J. M. (2020). Vivien Goldman, Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot. Labour / Le Travail, 85, 308-310. https://doi.org/10.1353/llt.2020.0018.
– Jessica DeWitt, Review of Kristen R. Ghodsee, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence. Labour/le Travail 84 (2019), 369-371.
– Jessica DeWitt, Review of On This Patch of Grass: City Parks on Occupied Land, Briarpatch Magazine, March/April 2019.
– Jessica DeWitt. Review of William C. Forrey, ‘History of Pennsylvania’s State Parks, 1893-1983’ and William C. Forrey, ‘History of Pennsylvania’s State Parks, 1984-2015.’ H-Pennsylvania, H-Net Reviews, September 2018.
– Jessica DeWitt. Review of Piper, Liza and Lisa Szabo-Jones. Sustaining the West: Cultural Responses to Canadian Environments. Environmental History (22.3): DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emx077.
– Jessica DeWitt, Review of Workman, Allen K., Schoodic Point: History on the Edge of Acadia National Park. Maine History 50 (Summer 2016): 109-110.
– Jessica DeWitt. Review of Reichwein, PearlAnn, Climber’s Paradise: Making Canada’s Mountain Parks, 1906–1974. Canadian Journal of History 50.3 (2015): 601-603.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Review: Historical GIS Research in Canada,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, October 3, 2014.
– Jessica DeWitt. Review of Rimby, Susan, Mira Lloyd Dock and the Progressive Era Conservation Movement. H-Pennsylvania, H-Net Reviews. September, 2014.
Digital Publications:
– “#EnvHist Worth Reading,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, published monthly, July 2014 – Present
– Jessica DeWitt, “Humans and Dogs and Bears, Oh My! – A Summer Podcast Reflection,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, August 8, 2019
– Jessica DeWitt, “Cultivating Abundance from a NiCHE Position: Using Social Media to Disseminate and Support Environmental History Scholarship,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, April 4, 2019.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Problems of Place: Place in Three Acts,” Environmental History Now, December 10, 2018
– Jessica DeWitt, et. al., “An Evolving Conversation: Environmental History and Current Events,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, April 24, 2017.
– Jessica DeWitt, et.al., “New Articles in Canadian Environmental History: From Adventurous Tourists to Experimental Farms,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, December 12, 2016.
– Jessica DeWitt, Sean Kheraj, and Daniel Macfarlane, “6 New Articles in Canadian Environmental History: From High Modernism to Ducks,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, May 19, 2016.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Visualizing a Park System: Creating an Interactive Timeline,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, March 2, 2016.
– Jessica DeWitt, “’Do Not Want Hippies, Motorcycles or Catholics’: The Public’s Vision for Fish Creek Provincial Park, 1974,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, August 31, 2015.
– Jessica DeWitt, “History Carnival 146: Facets of Environmental History,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, June 1, 2015.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Grounding Environmentalism in Small-Scale Reality: Environmentalism from Below Workshop,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, August 18, 2014.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Post-CHESS 2014 Reflections: Park Déjà vu,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, July 4, 2015.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Laurier Archives: Destination for Environmental Historians,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, June 18, 2014.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Cultivating an Online Presence: Leading the Academic into the Digital Realm,” Network in Canadian History and Environment, February 17, 2014.
– Jessica DeWitt, “Notes from the Field,” Seeing the Woods: A Blog by the Rachel Carson Center, September 2, 2013.
Podcast Episodes:
– Host, NiCHE Conversations, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), August 2020 – present.
– Bartz, Michael, “Remembering Alberta Parks: Establishing the Parks,” In Over My Head, February 9, 2024.
– Environmental History Now, “2.1 Jessica DeWitt on Places Past,” Ecotones Now, October 2023.
– Reed Wood, Louis, “Episode 17 – Ken Burns’s The National Parks with Jessica DeWitt,” Off-Campus History, May 2022.
– Sandlos, John, “Episode 11: Jessica DeWitt and Kimberley Coulter,” Crosscurrents Podcast, The Nexus Centre, November 14, 2019.
– Kheraj, Sean. “Episode 61: Why Graduate Students Study Environmental History” Nature’s Past: Canadian Environmental History Podcast. May 24, 2018.
– Kheraj, Sean. “Episode 44: The Second World Congress for Environmental History” Nature’s Past: Canadian Environmental History Podcast. September 24, 2014.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
– Folklore Fellowship, University of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society
September 2014-August 2017
– Recipient of Joan Mitchell Travel Award, Laurier Archives, Waterloo, Ontario
2014
– Doctorial Graduate Scholarship, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
2011-2014
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
– Research Assistant and Webmaster, “Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture, 1700-2000” Project
September 2013-Present
– HGIS Lab Assistant-Contract Mapping and Webmaster, University of Saskatchewan HGIS Lab
September 2012-Present
GIS PROJECTS
– Austrian Map Digitization Project, for Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture, 1700-2000
– Seven Maps of Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands in Martha Smith-Norris, Domination and Resistance: The United States and the Marshall Islands during the Cold War, University of Hawaii Press, 2016.
– Map of Community-Based Organizations in Saskatchewan, for Gloria DeSantis, Tara Todd, and Paul Hackett
PUBLIC TALKS
– Keynote Speaker, Saskatoon Regional Youth Heritage Fair, Western Development Museum, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
May 15, 2019
– “Folklore Magazine and Department Involvement in Social Media,” 2015 History Book Launch and Research Celebration, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
February 13, 2015
– “Networking and Self-Promotion: Navigating the Academic Corner of Social Media,” Online Presence Workshop, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
February 11, 2014
CONFERENCE PLANNING
– Feminist Digital Methods, Centre for Feminist Research at York University, Conference Organizer, Virtual, August 11-13, 2023
– Lead Organizer and Moderator, #ASEH2018Tweets, American Society for Environmental History Graduate Student Caucus Twitter Conference
March 8-9, 2019
– Conference Planner, Dissent and History: First Annual Graduate Student Conference, Department of History, University of Rochester
February 2010
– Organizer, Historical Societies Leadership Forum, Jefferson County Historical Society, Brookville, Pennsylvania
June 2007
RELATED PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
GIS, ArcMap 10.1
Blogging
Social Media
Adobe InDesign
WordPress
Photoshop
Editing
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY SERVICE
– Social Media Publicist, History Graduate Student Committee, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
September 2013 – September 2018
– Social Director, History Graduate Student Committee, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
2012-2013; 2013-2014
– Student Member, Search Committee for Environmental History Position, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
January 2013
– Secretary/Treasurer, History Graduate Student Committee, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
2011-2012
– Board Member and Conference Planner, University of Rochester History Graduate Student Society, History Department, University of Rochester
2009-2010
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT/OUTREACH
– Coordinating Team Member/Communications Lead, Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon – Treaty Six, August 2020 – Present
– Vice-President, Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society Board of Directors, June 2022 – Present
– Vice Chair, Girls Rock Saskatoon Board of Directors, November 2019 – Present
– Secretary, Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society Board of Directors, June 2019 – June 2022
– Board Member, Girls Rock Camp Saskatoon
November 2018 – Present
– Board Member, Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society
June 2018 – Present
– Chair, Registration Committee, Girls Rock Saskatoon
October 2018 – Present
– Organizing Member, Registration Committee, Girls Rock Saskatoon
October 2017 – October 2018
– Organizing Member, Volunteer Committee, Girls Rock Saskatoon
October 2016 – October 2017
– Volunteer, Saskatoon SPCA
September 2013 – December 2018
– Interviewer, “Election 2008 Oral History Project” Sponsored by Office of the Rochester City Historian, the Monroe County Historian’s Office, the Monroe County Library System, and the Rochester Regional Library, Rochester, New York
April 2009
INTERNSHIPS
– Archival Intern, Jefferson County Historical Society, Brookville, Pennsylvania
May-August 2007
LANGUAGE
German- Can Read with Dictionary
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP/AFFILIATIONS
-Member, Pennsylvania Historical Association
September 2016 – Present
-Member, Canadian Historical Association
September 2013- Present
-Member, American Society for Environmental History
January 2013 – Present
-Member, American Historical Association
January 2013- Present
-Member, NICHE (Network in Canadian History of the Environment)
September 2011-Present
Jessica M. DeWitt: Editing and Consulting 