About

This website is maintained by Dr Jan Oosthoek, an environmental historian and educator based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. For many years he has lectured and researched at the Universities of Newcastle (UK) and Edinburgh. At present he is  an Associate Member of the Centre for Environmental History at the Australian National University.

The research interests of Jan Oosthoek cover a wide range of topics within the field of Environmental history, including landscape history, the historical geography of forestry and land use and environmental globalization. In addition he is interested in the impact of environmental change on past human societies and how people responded to these changes. Most prominent of these environmental changes is the impact of climate fluctuations and on the lives of peoples, especially in north-western Europe. Past research activities concern the fisheries on the River Forth at Stirling, Scotland, and the problem of teaching science in the context of environmental history courses. Jan Oosthoek is the lead editor of the book The Globalization of Environmental Crisis (2007) and author of Conquering the Highlands. A history of the afforestation of the Scottish uplands (2013). He  is co-editor of a volume on forest history entitled Managing Northern Europe’s Forests. Histories from the Age of Improvement to the Age of Ecology (Berghahn Books, 2018) and editing a book based on  interviews of the Exploring Environmental History podcast series (Punctum books 2018) . See the publication section for a full list of publications. Between 2005 and 2007 Dr Oosthoek served as Vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History.

This website is intended to provide resources and information for scholars, students and anyone interested in environmental history. The site covers a wide range of topics reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of environmental history, including landscape history, forestry and land use, pollution and ideas and perceptions of nature.

Over the years a number of resources have been developed, including topical bibliographies, a collection of essays on environmental history; an annotated guide to other web resources and a podcast series.

View my pofile and publications on Research Gate .