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Joel J. Orth

Assistant Professor / Social Science Teaching Credential Advisor / History Minor Advisor
Agricultural and Rural History, Environmental History, 20th Century United States
E-mail: jorth@calpoly.edu
Office: Bldg. 47, Room 25L
Phone: (805) 756-2963

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Iowa State University, History
M.A. Iowa State University, History
B.A. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, History

RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS

My dissertation discusses the creation of a conservation landscape on the Great Plains. I continue to research and write on the Great Plains environment, but I am interested in environmental and agricultural history topics from many periods and areas. I teach United States History, Environmental History, and Teaching Methods.

AWARDS, HONORS & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

CCHE California Council on History Education, 2008 Conference, Santa Clara, CA
EEI Environmental Education Initiative, unit reviewer
PACT Performance Assessment of California Teachers, Santa Barbara, CA
NCATE Accreditation, Accountability and Quality: An Institutional Orientation and Professional Development Conference, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Arlington, Virginia.
Gilbert C. Fite Award for Best Dissertation in Agricultural History, 2004
43rd Annual Missouri Valley History Conference Prize for best graduate student paper

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

“’Directing nature’s creative forces’: climate change, afforestation, and the Nebraska National Forest,” Western Historical Quarterly Summer (2011).
“The Shelterbelt Project; cooperative conservation in 1930s America” Agricultural
History Summer (2007).
44th Annual Missouri Conference on History, Kansas City, Missouri. Presented a paper “Regional Transformation to Agronomic Tool: Afforestation on the Great Plains, 1870-1942”
Making Environmental History Relevant in the 21st Century. Durham, North Carolina. Presented a paper “Insurance Against the Evil Effects of Drought: Federal Planning and the Forest Service on the Great Plains”
44th Annual Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, Nebraska. Presented a paper “Directing Nature’s Creative Forces: The Establishment of the Nebraska National Forest”
22nd Annual Mid-America Conference on History, Lawrence, Kansas. Presented a paper “To Translate Scientific Abstractions into Concrete Images of Human Interest: Science, Nature, and the Shelterbelt Project”
Thirty-third Annual Northern Great Plains History Conference, Sioux Falls, South
Dakota. Presented a paper “The Shelterbelt Project and Climate Change”
Seventh International Symposium on Society and Resource Management, University of
Missouri-Columbia, Missouri. Presented a paper “The Shelterbelt Project: The Technical, Social, and Natural Implications of Decision Making”

SERVICE

My duties as the History-Social Science Credential Advisor mean that I spend a lot of time working with colleagues from the School of Education and in the public schools where I help supervise student teachers. For the History Department, I serve on the assessment committee, the liberal studies committee, as the history minor adviser, advise MA theses, and hiring committees.

ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

American Society of Environmental History
Forest History Society
Agricultural History Society, Edwards Award Committee
California Council for History Education

COURSES

HIST 207 – Freedom and Equality in American History
HIST 322 – Modern America (20th Century US)
HIST 440 – United States Environmental History
HIST 424 – Organizing and Teaching History
HIST 425 – Teaching Practicum
HIST 505 – Seminar: North American Environmental History
HIST 510 – Comparative World Environmental History
Education 469 – Part-time Student Teaching
Education 479 – Full-time Student Teaching