CHASES is committed to supporting research in its core fields. As part of the mission it seeks to sponsor and publicize innovative research at the intersection of agricultural history, environmental history, and the history of science. Moreover, it seeks to facilitate such research by increasing the accessibility of primary resources.
CHASES Graduate Fellows
Each year, CHASES provides an additional stipend to one graduate student in the MSU History Department. The CHASES Graduate Fellow aids in the day‑to-day operations of the center and can be reached at grad-fellow@chases.msstate.edu.
- 2022-2024: Nathan Smith
- 2020-2021: Jeremy Montgomery
- 2019-2020: Scott Wooley
- 2018-2019: Kathleen Sullivan-Thomas
- 2017-2018: Matthew Himel
- 2016-2017: Fraser Livingston
- 2015-2016: Nick Timmerman
- 2014-2015: Jason Hauser
- 2013-2014: Kelli Nelson
CHASES Visiting Fellows
2023-2024
Atte Arffman, PhD Candidate of Environmental History, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä
Atte Arffman is a doctoral researcher in environmental history at the University of Jyväskylä. His PhD project, which he began in 2020, is titled "Americans and the Politics of Nature - Mechanisms of Politicization of Natural Phenomena in the United States." In it he examines the ways in which hurricanes have been a political force in the American Southeast. He is also broadly interested in different genres of environmental history, most especially intellectual environmental history, which explores of the conceptual diversity of the environment and of its public use, including in political debates.
2018-2019
Mikko Saikku, Helsinki University
2015-2016
Liu Xiangyang, The School of History and Culture, Hebei Normal University
An associate professor and master tutor in the School of History and Culture at Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang, China, Liu Xiangyang is the author of The Game of Clean Air: An Examination of Air Pollution Control in the United States during the Twentieth Century (China Environmental Sciences Press, 2014). His current research project centers on a comparative study of Chinese and American environmental issues. At its core, Xiangyang’s research explores the tensions between economic development and environmental regulation by looking at issues like pollution abatement, water-resource management, and the growing politicization of science and technology.
History of Private Land Conservation Curriculum Project
Working closely with Mark Hersey, Matt Himel, CHASES first Postdoctoral Fellow, managed a team of researchers to curate a resource list to narrate a more complete history of private conservation in the United States. The History of Land Conservation Curriculum Resource List, a project in partnership with the Land Trust Alliance and the Forest History Society will be used to create a curriculum to better inform conservation practitioners and supporters of the hidden history of conservation and its unintended consequences.
To accompany the History of Land Conservation Curriculum Resource List, Matt edited a blog series with a forthcoming publication through the Land Trust Alliance. The series features pieces contextualizing the consequences of past conservation efforts such as land dispossession, conditioned agricultural expectations, and inequitable water access.
Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station Bulletins, 1898-1970
CHASES and the Mississippi State University Libraries received a grant from Project Ceres, which was used to support the digitization of MSU Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station Bulletins from 1898-1970. The materials are now available and full-text online at MSU's institutional repository. Project Ceres is sponsored by the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN), the Agriculture Network Information Center (AGNIC), and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and supports the digital preservation of print materials essential to study of the history and economics of agriculture. For more, visit the CRL Project Ceres site.