Jennifer Geller

Topic: The Environmental History of Coal Mining, Management and Mitigation in Clackmannanshire, Scotland 1792-2000

Supervisors: Dr. Catherine Mills, Dr. Paul Adderley

I am a one-year MRes student on leave from high school teaching in the US. Having grown up in rural New England under the stench of paper mills, I am particularly drawn to issues of rural industrialization and am investigating how environmental impact could be used as a measure of rural, urban and industrial designations, particularly in abandoned coal mines along the River Devon in Clackmannanshire. I am also interested in local management-level decisions concerning coal production, their impact on local environmental change and subsequent local and national pollution policies.

My general interest in environmental history began when I, along with some fellow teachers, was tasked with creating an interdisciplinary high school in which themes from science and history drove our curriculum; the processes we used in this school mirrored very closely those used at Stirling and it is exciting to experience these methods as a student. My social history degree from Carnegie Mellon University focussed on urban American industrialization, particularly the Pittsburgh steel industry; clearly this work has influenced my thinking about the “urban” side of the debate over urban and rural dichotomies.

Education: B.A. in social history, Carnegie Mellon University; M. A. T., University of Pittsburgh