We are thrilled to welcome Matthew Shutzer to the History Department. Shutzer is an environmental historian of South Asia whose research and teaching are concerned with energy, development, and the environment in global history. He comes to us from Duke University, where he taught as Assistant Professor after serving as a Ciriacy-Wantrup Fellow in Natural Resource Economics and Political Economy in our very own Geography Department at UC Berkeley and as a Junior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies after earning his PhD from New York University. The list of accolades that Shutzer has earned for his fascinating work on energy and the environment includes fellowships from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, the Social Science Research Council, the ACLS, and the American Historical Association, among others.
Shutzer is currently putting the finishing touches on a book about the history of fossil fuels in India, titled Subterranean Lands: India, Fossil Fuels, and the Limits of the Earth, which will be published by Princeton University Press. He is also advancing two exciting new ventures that demonstrate his standing in and contributions to the field: with Robyn d’Avignon, he is co-editing a forum on “The Archive in Environmental History” for the flagship journal Environmental History as well as a special issue of the journal Osiris on “the subterranean turn” in the History of Science.Shutzer’s previous publications have appeared in Past and Present,Comparative Studies in Society and History, The Radical History Review, History Compass, and in edited volumes dedicated to topics ranging from environmental history to decolonization. Next fall, Shutzer will be an CAORC-NEH Research Fellow in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Though Shutzer has only just arrived, his contributions to our department and campus are already evident. Shutzer has taken the lead, in collaboration with Rebecca Herman, Rebecca McLennan, and Bernadette Perez in organizing Berkeley’s new Environmental History Working Group, which convenes monthly for presentations, workshops, and book talks. This semester, he is offering a new undergraduate lecture course, called “Fossil Fuels and Climate History,” that, not surprisingly, is fully enrolled.
Welcome, Matthew! We are so happy you’re here.