Char Miller

Director of Environmental Analysis; W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History
With Pomona Since: 2007
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Char Miller鈥檚 teaching and research reflect his fascination with all things environmental. Classes on U.S. environmental history, water in the U.S. West, and public lands management, like those on urbanization and the interplay between the natural and built landscapes, have deeply informed his writing鈥攁nd his cross-disciplinary and cross-campus commitments to Pomona鈥檚 Environmental Analysis and History programs as well as to the 5C Environmental Analysis major.

    Miller received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Pomfret School at his 50th reunion in 2020. In 2015, he was awarded the Pomona Alumni Office鈥檚 Distinguished Service Award and two years earlier he was named a Wig Distinguished Professor at 麻豆传媒 for teaching excellence.

    An active and award-winning scholar, his most recent books include (2022); (2021), (2020), (2020); Elers Koch鈥s memoir, ; (2019); (2018); (2018); and (2018).

    A senior fellow of the , and a fellow of the and of the , Professor Miller has served as a consulting historian for more than a dozen documentaries and worked closely with museums in Los Angeles and San Antonio to develop exhibits and educational materials, outreach that has influenced his teaching and scholarship.

    Research Interests

    • The intersection of U.S. environmental policy, history and politics
    • Debates over wildland fire in the American West
    • Battles over water in regions of little rain
    • Arguments erupting around immigration and borderland security
    • The dilemmas that urban growth and development pose for the booming southwestern states

    Areas of Expertise

    • U.S. environmental policy
    • U.S. public-lands management
    • Western water politics
    • Immigration and border security
    • Urban politics and development
    • U. S. intellectual and cultural history
  • Work

    Work

    Recent Podcast

    鈥,鈥 New Books Network, January 7, 2023, online

    鈥,鈥 KSQD (Santa Cruz), online

    鈥,鈥 New Books on the America West podcast, December 2, 2022

    Recent Interview

    , September 14, 2021

    鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Texas Public Radio, September 10, 2021

    鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Texas Standard, September 9, 2021

    鈥,鈥欌赌&苍产蝉辫;Texas Public Radio, September 3, 2021

    (2020)

    Recent Video

    鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;China Global Television 麻豆传媒, June 23, 2021, online

    鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;China Global Television 麻豆传媒, June 5, 2021, online

    鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Spectrum 麻豆传媒, 5-6, 2021; online

    鈥,鈥&苍产蝉辫;China Global Television 麻豆传媒, April 23, 2021, online

    (2020)

     (2020)

     (2019)

    Recent Books

    (2024)

     (2022)

      (2021)

    (2020)

    (2018)

    (2018)

    (2016)

    (2016)

    (2013).

    (2013).

    (2013).

     (2012). 

    Recent Anthologies

    &苍产蝉辫;(2020)鈥

    (2019)

    (2019)

    (2018)

    (2017)

    (2016)

     (2013).

     (2010).

     (2009).

     (2009).

    Richard Harding Davis: The West from a Car-Window, Library of Texas series, (2006).

     (2004).

    Recent Articles & Chapters

    鈥淧ictures at an Exhibition: Rendering the Los Angeles River,鈥 Eden: Quarterly Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society, 25:4, Fall 2022, 30-37. With Tilly Hinton.

    鈥淲alking in the Los Angeles River: An Immersive Experience,鈥 Eden: Quarterly Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society, 25:3, Summer 2022, 30-39.

    鈥淩ailroad Miles and Slash-Pine Seeds,鈥 Forest Source, 27:4: April 2022, 1, 17.

    鈥溾 Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 125:3, January 2022, 251-69.

    鈥淎rchitects of Smoke,鈥 Forecast Journal, Issue 9: Sustainability, Winter 2022, 48-52.

    鈥溾橤reed for Land鈥: W.W. Ashe and the Environmental Roots of the 1921 Flood in Central Texas,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 125:1, July 2021, 62-73.

    鈥淩eclamation Project: Rediscovering W. W. Ashe and the Origins of Watershed Stewardship,鈥&苍产蝉辫;Forest History Today, 26:1/2, Spring /Fall 2020, 40-49.

    鈥淪treetscape Environmentalism: Flood Control, Social Justice, and Political Power in San Antonio, 1921-1974,鈥 in Miller and Crane, eds.,  (2019), 100-119.

    鈥淔uture Imperfect: The Forest Service and Federal Land Management in a Climate-Charged Environment,鈥 in Steve Wilent, ed., 193 Million Acres: Toward a Healthier and More Resilient US Forest Service (Bethesda MD: Society of American Foresters, 2019), 601-619.

    鈥溾橵ast, Incredible Damage鈥: The US Forest Service and the Herbicide Wars,鈥 in Janet Brodie, Vivien Hamilton and Brinda Sarathy, eds., Inevitably Toxic: Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure, and Expertise, (Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), 182-206. With James G. Lewis.

    鈥淓ssential Landscape: An Environmental History of Chaparral Ecosystems in California,鈥 in E.C. Underwood, et al., eds.Valuing Chaparral: Ecological, Social, and Management Perspectives, Springer Series on Environmental Management, (Springer, 2018), 123-40.

    鈥淩eading the Tea Leaves,鈥 in Char Miller, ed., Where There鈥檚 Smoke: How Marijuana is Damaging the Environment and Transforming Politics (Lawrence KS: University Press of Kansas, 2018), 213-21. With Anthony Silvaggio.

    鈥溾橳his is Democracy Held Hostage鈥: Cannabis in the Capital,鈥 in Char Miller, ed., Where There鈥檚 Smoke: How Marijuana is Damaging the Environment and Transforming Politics (Lawrence KS: University Press of Kansas, 2018), 185-98. With Karen August.

    鈥淪outhern Exposure: Marijuana, Labor, and the Law in the Appalachians,鈥 in Char Miller, ed., Where There鈥檚 Smoke: How Marijuana is Damaging the Environment and Transforming Politics (Lawrence KS: University Press of Kansas, 2018), 127-35. With Hawes Spencer.

    Recent Documentaries

    鈥,鈥 Ann Kaneko, premiered at BigSky Film Festival, February 26, 2021.

    Bring Your Own Brigade, Lucy Walker Films (2021); Selected for Sundance Film Festival. Premiered January 29, 2021.

    , ShivHans Pictures, 2021. Premiered January 14, 2021.

    America's First Forest: Carl Schenck and the Biltmore Forest School (Bonesteel Films/PBS, 2016)

    The Big Burn (PBS: American Experience, 2015)

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D. in History, The Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, Maryland

    M.A. in History, The Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, Maryland

    B.A. in History and Political Studies, Pitzer College
    Claremont, California

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Crisis Management: Public Lands in American Culture
    • EA Senior Seminar
    • EA Senior Thesis
    • Nature, Culture, and Society
    • US Environmental History
    • Water in the West
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Vice Chair, Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association

    Board Member, National Museum of Forest Service History

    Pomfret School Distinguished Alumni Award, 2020

    麻豆传媒, Alumni Service Award, 2015

    麻豆传媒, Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2013

    Organization of American Historians, Distinguished Lecturers, 2007-10

    USDA Forest Service, New Century of Service Annual Award, 2005; US Forest Service Centennial Lecturer, 2004-05

    Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation and State of Texas, Piper Professor, 2002, for excellence in teaching and service to higher education

    Editor-in-Chief, Eastern Sierra History Journal, 2020- ; Editor-in-Chief, EnviroLab Asia Journal, 2017-

    Editorial Boards, Library of Texas series, 2006- ; Pacific Historical Review, 2002-2008; Environmental History, 2001-06; 2010-2012 (Associate Editor, 1999-2001, 2006-10); Trinity University Press, 2002-06; and Associate Editor (History), Journal of Forestry, 2005-10.

    Forest History Society, Director Emeritus, 2020- ; Board of Directors, 2002-2008

    Pinchot Institute for Conservation, Senior Fellow, 1997-present

    Trinity University: Dr. and Mrs. Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship, 1997; Outstanding Professor, Humanities & Arts Division, 1996-97; Outstanding Professor, 1986