David Pietz, Regents Professor of Chinese History, UNESCO Chair in Environmental History
Wednesday, September 20, 2023,
2:30pm-3:30 p.m.,
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
As with many other regions around the world, including the American southwest, northern China is experiencing a water problem. Nature and culture have conspired to shape the waterscape of the North China Plain. What is unique in this region is that local communities and Chinese states have confronted this ecological challenge for centuries, often in remarkably creative and effective ways. To be sure, the breakneck pace of economic and social change during the last several decades has added a new complication to this historical challenge.
David Pietz is Professor of Chinese History in the Department of History at the University of Arizona, where he also holds the UNESCO Chair in Environmental History. Dr. Pietz’s research on the environmental history of modern China has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton), the Carnegie Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Dr. Pietz’s courses at the UA include Modern China, Modern East Asia, East Asian Environmental History, Introduction to the Study of History, and Dimensions of Globalization. His most recent publication is Water and Human Societies: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (2021), which explores the historical relationships between human communities and water. Bringing together for the first time key texts from across the literature, it discusses how the past has shaped our contemporary challenges with equitable access to clean and ample water supplies.
Compiled and edited by Marilyn B. Skinner, Academy Village Volunteer
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