A part of the
Our Team
Nicholas Bauch
Researcher
Nicholas Bauch is a geographer who, firstly, offers spatial interpretations of phenomena that are not commonly thought of as geographical. Examples here include his 2010 dissertation A Geography of Digestion, and writings about the vast built environments that electronic information requires. Secondly, he strives to advance the practice of fieldwork in cultural and urban geography. Activities here include past membership with artist collective The Los Angeles Urban Rangers, his pedagogical agenda to link class field trips with training in information literacy, and his semiannual organizing of Landscape Fieldworks, an investigative research group that seeks to document and experience in situ components of geographical and architectural literature. This love of forging new ways of experiencing geographical thought has led him (back) to the archives, from which he is re-creating and augmenting a set of 1930s narrated slideshows of two southwestern U.S. National Parks–Zion and Grand Canyon. He received a Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA, and is now a Lecturer in the Thinking Matters Program at Stanford.
Nicholas Bauch is a geographer who, firstly, offers spatial interpretations of phenomena that are not commonly thought of as geographical. Examples here include his 2010 dissertation A Geography of Digestion, and writings about the vast built environments that electronic information requires. Secondly, he strives to advance the practice of fieldwork in cultural and urban geography. Activities here include past membership with artist collective The Los Angeles Urban Rangers, his pedagogical agenda to link class field trips with training in information literacy, and his semiannual organizing of Landscape Fieldworks, an investigative research group that seeks to document and experience in situ components of geographical and architectural literature. This love of forging new ways of experiencing geographical thought has led him (back) to the archives, from which he is re-creating and augmenting a set of 1930s narrated slideshows of two southwestern U.S. National Parks–Zion and Grand Canyon. He received a Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA, and is now a Lecturer in the Thinking Matters Program at Stanford.
Cameron Blevins
Researcher
Cameron Blevins is a PhD candidate studying digital and American history. His dissertation maps the geography of the U.S. postal system in the American West during the late-nineteenth century. Cameron is an active member of the digital humanities community at Stanford and beyond and can be found online at cameronblevins.org.
Cameron Blevins is a PhD candidate studying digital and American history. His dissertation maps the geography of the U.S. postal system in the American West during the late-nineteenth century. Cameron is an active member of the digital humanities community at Stanford and beyond and can be found online at cameronblevins.org.
Jon Christensen
Researcher
Jon Chr*stensen is a principal investigator for Crowdsourcing for Humanities Research. He is directing a project crowdsourcing a new environmental history of the San Francisco Bay Area with museums, libraries, archives, and other partners as part of the Year of the Bay in 2013. He also has directed the Critical Habitat project, which has examined the spatial history of ideas, narratives, science, and practices of conservation across multiple spatial and temporal scales in the American West. And he coordinated Tooling Up for Digital Histories, a collaboration between the Spatial History Project and the Computer Graphics Lab at Stanford University and others to compile, test, create, and share new tools for digital and spatial research in the humanities.
Jon Chr*stensen is a principal investigator for Crowdsourcing for Humanities Research. He is directing a project crowdsourcing a new environmental history of the San Francisco Bay Area with museums, libraries, archives, and other partners as part of the Year of the Bay in 2013. He also has directed the Critical Habitat project, which has examined the spatial history of ideas, narratives, science, and practices of conservation across multiple spatial and temporal scales in the American West. And he coordinated Tooling Up for Digital Histories, a collaboration between the Spatial History Project and the Computer Graphics Lab at Stanford University and others to compile, test, create, and share new tools for digital and spatial research in the humanities.
Zephyr Frank
Director
Zephyr Frank is an Associate Professor of History at Stanford University, Director of the Spatial History Project, and the principal investigator for the Terrain of History project. This project is an international collaborative project that seeks to reconstruct and analyze the social, cultural, and economic spaces of nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro. Professor Frank has been conducting this research for the last eight years.
Zephyr Frank is an Associate Professor of History at Stanford University, Director of the Spatial History Project, and the principal investigator for the Terrain of History project. This project is an international collaborative project that seeks to reconstruct and analyze the social, cultural, and economic spaces of nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro. Professor Frank has been conducting this research for the last eight years.
Andrew Gerhart
Researcher
Andrew Gerhart is a Ph.D. candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. Now in his 4th year, Andy is researching the social and environmental history of the Chilean salmon farming industry in its historical center on the island of Chiloé.
Andrew Gerhart is a Ph.D. candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. Now in his 4th year, Andy is researching the social and environmental history of the Chilean salmon farming industry in its historical center on the island of Chiloé.
Allyson Hobbs
Researcher
Allyson Hobbs is an assistant professor of American and African American history at Stanford. Currently, she is at work on a book manuscript that examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. Allyson’s book is tentatively titled A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. The focus of her second book project will be migration, a different form of “crossing over” than passing and a major theme in African American and American history. The Great Migration was a watershed in African American life: over the course of six decades (1910-1970), six million black southerners left the South in search of more meaningful experiences of freedom. She hopes to offer a different angle of vision on the migration by bringing to light the places where migrants slept, ate, got haircuts, and danced along the way. She plans to recreate their routes, keeping the following questions in mind: how did the experience of migrating create, nurture, and solidify African American identities? What fractures, contradictions, and tensions within African American identities did the migration bring into relief? What kinds of resources did African Americans draw upon to navigate the constraints of Jim Crow America on the road?
Allyson Hobbs is an assistant professor of American and African American history at Stanford. Currently, she is at work on a book manuscript that examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present. Allyson’s book is tentatively titled A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. The focus of her second book project will be migration, a different form of “crossing over” than passing and a major theme in African American and American history. The Great Migration was a watershed in African American life: over the course of six decades (1910-1970), six million black southerners left the South in search of more meaningful experiences of freedom. She hopes to offer a different angle of vision on the migration by bringing to light the places where migrants slept, ate, got haircuts, and danced along the way. She plans to recreate their routes, keeping the following questions in mind: how did the experience of migrating create, nurture, and solidify African American identities? What fractures, contradictions, and tensions within African American identities did the migration bring into relief? What kinds of resources did African Americans draw upon to navigate the constraints of Jim Crow America on the road?
Michael Levin
Spatial Documentarian
Michael Levin is a documentary filmmaker and specialist in media for community development.
He produced the documentary Dreams of a City: Creating East Palo Alto for Stanford University Libraries and the Committee on Black Performing Arts. The film has been widely used on campus as background for students working in the community and as a critical education tool for East Palo Alto community organizations, schools and municipal government. Other accomplishments during 15 years of work in East Palo Alto include being Executive Director of the EPA.net youth social enterprise, working at local organizations Plugged In and Free at Last, helping to launch a youth video program at JobTrain, helping bring the UN Association Film Festival to East Palo Alto, and curating and programming the East Palo Alto 20th Anniversary Film Festival. He holds a BA in Communication from UC Santa Cruz and a Masters in Communication (Documentary Film Production) from Stanford University.
Michael Levin is a documentary filmmaker and specialist in media for community development.
He produced the documentary Dreams of a City: Creating East Palo Alto for Stanford University Libraries and the Committee on Black Performing Arts. The film has been widely used on campus as background for students working in the community and as a critical education tool for East Palo Alto community organizations, schools and municipal government. Other accomplishments during 15 years of work in East Palo Alto include being Executive Director of the EPA.net youth social enterprise, working at local organizations Plugged In and Free at Last, helping to launch a youth video program at JobTrain, helping bring the UN Association Film Festival to East Palo Alto, and curating and programming the East Palo Alto 20th Anniversary Film Festival. He holds a BA in Communication from UC Santa Cruz and a Masters in Communication (Documentary Film Production) from Stanford University.
Andrew Robichaud
Researcher
Andrew Robichaud is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History. He specializes in environmental history and is working on a dissertation that examines the history of animals and human-animal relationships in America. Click here to view his online publication "Trail of Blood."
Andrew Robichaud is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History. He specializes in environmental history and is working on a dissertation that examines the history of animals and human-animal relationships in America. Click here to view his online publication "Trail of Blood."
Maria J. Santos
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Maria J. Santos joined the Spatial History Project at the beginning of 2012. She is a postdoctoral fellow with the Spatial History Project and the Bill Lane Center for the American West. She recently completed a postdoctoral period at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California Berkeley, and has a PhD in Ecology from the University of California Davis, a Masters in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University, and a Bachelor's in Wildlife Biology from the University of Lisbon in Portugal. Prior to joining the Spatial History Project, Maria researched spatial and temporal dynamics of wildlife species and their habitat, and how these may or not be affected by land use/land cover and climate changes using Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and statistical methods. During her research she has been awarded a Fulbright fellowship, several fellowships from the Portuguese government, and funding from US agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, NASA, NCSE, etc. Maria brings this expertise allied with a passion for using historical data to address ecological questions, embracing the multi-disciplinarity in the sciences on her research at the Lab.
Maria J. Santos joined the Spatial History Project at the beginning of 2012. She is a postdoctoral fellow with the Spatial History Project and the Bill Lane Center for the American West. She recently completed a postdoctoral period at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California Berkeley, and has a PhD in Ecology from the University of California Davis, a Masters in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University, and a Bachelor's in Wildlife Biology from the University of Lisbon in Portugal. Prior to joining the Spatial History Project, Maria researched spatial and temporal dynamics of wildlife species and their habitat, and how these may or not be affected by land use/land cover and climate changes using Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and statistical methods. During her research she has been awarded a Fulbright fellowship, several fellowships from the Portuguese government, and funding from US agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, NASA, NCSE, etc. Maria brings this expertise allied with a passion for using historical data to address ecological questions, embracing the multi-disciplinarity in the sciences on her research at the Lab.
Scott Saul
Researcher
Scott Saul is an associate professor of English and American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches courses in American culture and history. He has written for Harper’s, The Nation, Boston Review, and other publications, and is the author of Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties (Harvard University Press, 2003). Currently, he is working with the Spatial History Project to develop an interactive supplement to his biography of comedian-actor Richard Pryor (HarperCollins, forthcoming).
Scott Saul is an associate professor of English and American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches courses in American culture and history. He has written for Harper’s, The Nation, Boston Review, and other publications, and is the author of Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties (Harvard University Press, 2003). Currently, he is working with the Spatial History Project to develop an interactive supplement to his biography of comedian-actor Richard Pryor (HarperCollins, forthcoming).
Edith Sheffer
Researcher
Edith Sheffer is an Assistant Professor of modern European history at Stanford university. Interested in the global consequences of everyday actions, she is the author of Burned Bridge: How East and West Germans Made the Iron Curtain (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011). Her current book, Inventing Autism under Nazism: The Surveillance of Emotion and Child Euthanasia in the Third Reich, examines Hans Asperger’s creation of the autism diagnosis in Nazi Vienna, situating it within the context of efforts to define the national community and the murder of disabled children. Related research at the Spatial History Project, Forming Selves: The Creation of Child Psychiatry from Red Vienna to the Third Reich and Abroad, traces the transnational growth of the field of child development.
Edith Sheffer is an Assistant Professor of modern European history at Stanford university. Interested in the global consequences of everyday actions, she is the author of Burned Bridge: How East and West Germans Made the Iron Curtain (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011). Her current book, Inventing Autism under Nazism: The Surveillance of Emotion and Child Euthanasia in the Third Reich, examines Hans Asperger’s creation of the autism diagnosis in Nazi Vienna, situating it within the context of efforts to define the national community and the murder of disabled children. Related research at the Spatial History Project, Forming Selves: The Creation of Child Psychiatry from Red Vienna to the Third Reich and Abroad, traces the transnational growth of the field of child development.
Gregory Simon
Researcher
Gregory Simon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver and the principal investigator for the Vulnerability-in-Production Project. Focusing on the 1991 Tunnel Fire in Oakland CA, this interdisciplinary project explores notions of vulnerability as a historical process marked by geographic interconnectedness, risk momentum, environmental change and wealth accumulation. Gregory was a Post Doctoral Fellow in Stanford's Lane Center for the American West from 2007-2009.
Gregory Simon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver and the principal investigator for the Vulnerability-in-Production Project. Focusing on the 1991 Tunnel Fire in Oakland CA, this interdisciplinary project explores notions of vulnerability as a historical process marked by geographic interconnectedness, risk momentum, environmental change and wealth accumulation. Gregory was a Post Doctoral Fellow in Stanford's Lane Center for the American West from 2007-2009.
Jim Tice
Researcher
Professor of Architecture James Tice at the University of Oregon, is a Research Fellow at Studium Urbis, an international study center in Rome devoted to the study of the city’s urban history. As a teacher, scholar and architect, he has devoted 25 years to the study of Italian architecture and urbanism. He has co-authored two books on architecture one of which uses computer generated visualization techniques to reveal architectural principles. He has earned awards for work that is national and international in scope. His most recent projects include research and publication of two interactive websites with Erik Steiner, the "Interactive Nolli Map Website" that was honored with the NorthWest Academic Computing Consortium Award for outstanding project of the year and "Imago Urbis: Giusepe Vasi''s Grand Tour of Rome" that was the result of a major research grant from the Getty Foundation. Most recently he was awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Fellowship for his continuing study of Rome from antiquity to the present.
Professor of Architecture James Tice at the University of Oregon, is a Research Fellow at Studium Urbis, an international study center in Rome devoted to the study of the city’s urban history. As a teacher, scholar and architect, he has devoted 25 years to the study of Italian architecture and urbanism. He has co-authored two books on architecture one of which uses computer generated visualization techniques to reveal architectural principles. He has earned awards for work that is national and international in scope. His most recent projects include research and publication of two interactive websites with Erik Steiner, the "Interactive Nolli Map Website" that was honored with the NorthWest Academic Computing Consortium Award for outstanding project of the year and "Imago Urbis: Giusepe Vasi''s Grand Tour of Rome" that was the result of a major research grant from the Getty Foundation. Most recently he was awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Fellowship for his continuing study of Rome from antiquity to the present.
Lea VanderVelde
Researcher
Lea VanderVelde is the Josephine R. Witte Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law and a Guggenheim Fellow in Constitutional Studies. She is the principal investigator for The Law of the Antebellum Frontier project. This collaborative project seeks to digitally analyze the legal and economic mechanisms at work on the American frontier or the early 1800s. Understanding these mechanisms reflects upon how empires expand and how American expansion shaped American identity and the constitutional amendments after the civil war. Professor VanderVelde has been conducting research in this field for the last fifteen years.
Lea VanderVelde is the Josephine R. Witte Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law and a Guggenheim Fellow in Constitutional Studies. She is the principal investigator for The Law of the Antebellum Frontier project. This collaborative project seeks to digitally analyze the legal and economic mechanisms at work on the American frontier or the early 1800s. Understanding these mechanisms reflects upon how empires expand and how American expansion shaped American identity and the constitutional amendments after the civil war. Professor VanderVelde has been conducting research in this field for the last fifteen years.
Richard White
Former Director
Richard White is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University and is the principal investigator for the Shaping the West project. This project explores the construction of space by transcontinental railroads in North America during the late nineteenth-century. Professor White has been conducting this research for the last twelve years.
Richard White is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University and is the principal investigator for the Shaping the West project. This project explores the construction of space by transcontinental railroads in North America during the late nineteenth-century. Professor White has been conducting this research for the last twelve years.
Daryle Williams
Researcher
Daryle Williams, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, is Principal Investigator for The Broken Paths of Freedom, a historical study of the geographies of enslavement, emancipation, and liberty traversed by approximately fourteen-thousand Free Africans [africanos livres] illicitly introduced into the Brazilian empire between 1821 and 1856. Williams has authored Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945 (2001), winner of the American Historical Association's John Edwin Fagg prize, as well as several articles and book chapters on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Brazilian cultural history. Faculty Page
Daryle Williams, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, is Principal Investigator for The Broken Paths of Freedom, a historical study of the geographies of enslavement, emancipation, and liberty traversed by approximately fourteen-thousand Free Africans [africanos livres] illicitly introduced into the Brazilian empire between 1821 and 1856. Williams has authored Culture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930-1945 (2001), winner of the American Historical Association's John Edwin Fagg prize, as well as several articles and book chapters on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Brazilian cultural history. Faculty Page
