Alagona picture

Professor & Director of IPEES

alagona@es.ucsb.edu

Bren 4013

Peter Alagona is an environmental historian, historian of science, nature-culture geographer, conservation scientist, wildlife advocate, and prolific author of creative non-fiction. His work explores what happens when humans share space and resources (their habitats) with other species: how we interact with non-human creatures, how we make sense of these interactions, why we fight so much about them, what we can learn from them, and how we might use these lessons to foster a more just, peaceful, humane, and sustainable society. Most of his research has focused on human relations with wildlife in North America. A second area of interest involves developing creative interdisciplinary, collaborative, and mixed methods for studying ecological change.

Education

Ph.D., History, University of California, Los Angeles

Research

Pete is the author of around six dozen articles on wildlife, endangered species, and environmental history. He is also the author of two books, After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California (2013), and The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities (2022). He is currently working on a third book, Start With A Bear: How Learning to Share Our World with One of Its Biggest, Baddest Animals Could Help Save Us All.

Courses

ES 1: Introduction to Environmental Studies

ES 108w: People and Wildlife

ES 200: Interdisciplinary Environmental Research (IPEES Core Seminar)

Personal websites

www.peteralagona.com

https://www.calgrizzly.com

https://archives.nrs.ucsb.edu

 

 

Specialization

Environmental History, Wildlife and Endangered Species