Dawn Biehler
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2007
Assistant Professor
Office:
 211-F Sondheim Hall
Phone:
 410-455-2095
Email Address:
 dbiehler@umbc.edu
Research Interests:
 Historical geography/environmental history of public health in US cities, environmental justice, urban and feminist political ecology, housing, human-animal interactions
Recent Research Activities:
I am currently working on a book manuscript under contract with the University of Washington Press, entitled Pests and the People: An Environmental History of Animals, Chemicals, and Health in the Home. The book explores the public health implications of pests and pest control in US cities and suburbs since 1900. It focuses specifically on pests in domestic space, such as roaches, rats, bedbugs, mosquitoes, and house flies, and the technologies people have used to manage them. I am interested in the relationships among scientists, health officials, and citizens in struggles to manage nature and support healthy neighborhood environments. My research reveals that class, race, gender, and urban space have shaped pest ecology, pesticide exposure, and strategies for living with urban nature.

Two new research projects focused on the present day have grown out of my historical investigations for the book project. One looks at citizen perspectives on mosquito-borne disease hazards, focusing on West Nile Virus in Washington, DC, and Baltimore. I am working with a multi-disciplinary team that is surveying WNV vectors and community factors under the auspices of an NSF-ULTRA-EX grant. A second project, in its nascent stages, addresses the healthy housing movement and resident experiences of managing health and environment in domestic space. In both projects I maintain my interest in the role of race, class, gender, and urban space in the management of urban nature in the places where we live.

I have also been involved in collaborative research concerning the history of wild and domestic animals in humanized landscapes, particularly legal and management approaches to human-animal conflict. My Master’s thesis also examines the social geography of human-animal interactions in the urban landscape, specifically New York City’s Central Park.

Recent Publications:

2010 D. Biehler. Flies, manure, and window screens: medical entomology and environmental reform in early-twentieth-century US cities. Journal of Historical Geography 36: 68-78.

2009 D. Biehler. Permeable homes: A historical political ecology of insects and pesticides in US public housing. Geoforum 40: 1014-1023.

Under review in refereed journals:
D. Biehler and G. Simon. “The Great Indoors: Research Frontiers on indoor environments as active political-ecological spaces.” Progress in Human Geography.

D. Biehler. “Embodied wildlife histories and the urban landscape.” Environmental History.

Under contract with University of Washington Press:
Pests and the People: An Environmental History of Animals, Chemicals, and Health in the Home.

Other publications:
2007 D. Biehler. “Chronic Wasting Disease,” “Cryptosporidium,” “Deer,” “Hamilton, Alice,” “Silicosis,” “Typhus,” “United Church of Christ – Commission for Racial Justice,” “Yellow fever,” and “Zoos.” In P. Robbins, ed., Encyclopedia of Environment and Society. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA.

1999 D. Biehler, A. Fischer, K. Siedenberg, M. Winne. Getting Food on the Table: An Action Guide for Local Food Policy. Community Food Security Coalition: Venice, CA.

1999 D. Biehler, M. Sepos. The Hartford Food System: A Guide to Developing Community Food Programs. The Hartford Food System: Hartford, CT.

1995 D. Biehler, D. Bolnick, N. Gerhardt, E. Grossman, J. Ho, W. Morgan. Farms to Forest: A Naturalists’ Guide to the Ecology and Human History of the Hopkins Memorial Forest, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Williams College Center for Environmental Studies: Williamstown, MA.

Recent Presentations:

 2009. D. Biehler. Rodents, deviance, and crowding: John Calhoun’s rat cities and the urban-ecological gaze. Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Washington, DC.

2009. D. Biehler. Health, housing, and justice: Re-membering ‘Other’ Environmentalisms in US History. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, NV.

2009. D. Biehler. Housing or garbage? Urban rats and the ecologies of racism and civic disorder. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, Tallahassee, FL.

2008 D. Biehler. Back-Alley Ecology; Or, Bringing People, Urban Animals, and Public Health into Environmental History. Canadian History and Environment Summer School, Vancouver, BC.

2008. D. Biehler. Permeable Homes: Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Pesticides in Public Housing Since 1937. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA.

2007. L. Naughton, D. Biehler (presenter). Wildlife Conservation and Moral Authority Over Nature: When Wolves and Dogs Misbehave. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA.

2007. D. Biehler. Pest-Free Living? Pest Control, Regulation, and the Science of the Home Environment, 1945-1975. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, Baton Rouge, LA.

2006 D. Biehler. An Environmental History of Pesticide Resistance in US Urban Neighborhoods: Rodent Bodies and the Geography of Containment. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL.

2005 D. Biehler. Environmental Histories of Pest Control, Public Health, and US Urban Neighborhoods. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, CO.

2004 D. Biehler. Who Let the Dogs Out? Race, Urban Ecology, and Pet Practices in 1970s Baltimore. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, PA.

2003 D. Biehler. ‘A Risk You Can’t Quantify Isn’t Worth Taking’: Toward a Critique of Brownfields Policy, Knowledge, and Neoliberalism. Contested Urban Futures Conference, University of Minnesota Department of Geography.

2003 D. Biehler. From Pigtown to Pastoral City: Animals, Class, and Nature in New York City’s Central Park, 1850-1900. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans, LA.
Recent Honors and Awards:
2007 President’s Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of British Columbia Department of Geography

2007 Historical Geography Specialty Group, Doctoral-Level Paper Award

2006 Vilas Travel Award, University of Wisconsin – Madison

2006 American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship

2006 Writing Across the Curriculum Teaching Fellow, University of Wisconsin – Madison

2005 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant
Courses Taught:
Geography of Human Activities; Geographies of Health and Disease; Seminar in Medical Geography: Environment, Society, and Health