PhD Candidate (ABD)

Email: tdf2b (at) virginia.edu

Fields & Specialties

Environmental History, History of Technology, 19th Century US

Ph.D.   History, University of Virginia, In Progress, Expected Completion: May,                            2012 

M.A.    History, University of Arizona, Tucson, 2006

B.A.     History, State University of New York at Binghamton, 2003

RESEARCH POSITIONS

 

Research Assistant.  Joe Gilbert, advisor.  University of Virginia Scholar’s Lab, Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship.  November 2009-Present.

 

Research Assistant.  Edmund Russell, advisor.  University of Virginia, Department of Science, Technology, and Society.  August 2007-August 2009.

 

Researcher. Barbara Morehouse, advisor.  University of Arizona, Institute for the Study of Plant Earth.  August 2005- May 2006.

 

Research Assistant. Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) Project, Barbara Morehouse, research advisor.  University of Arizona, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth.  August 2004-May 2005.

 

 

Researcher. CLIMAS Project, Gregg Garfin, advisor.  University of Arizona, Institute for the Study of Plant Earth.  March-August 2004.

 

Intern.  Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, Jamestown, New York.  May-August 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

TEACHING POSITIONS

 

Science, Technology, and Society 101, Technology and Democracy.  Teaching Assistant.  Dr. Kathryn Neeley.  University of Virginia.  Department of Science, Technology, and Society.  Spring 2010

 

Science, Technology, and Society 101, Technology and Democracy.  Teaching Assistant.  Dr. Kathryn Neeley.  University of Virginia.  Department of Science, Technology, and Society.  Fall 2009 

 

Science, Technology, and Society 101, Technology and Democracy.  Teaching Assistant.  Dr. Kathryn Neeley.  University of Virginia.  Department of Science, Technology, and Society.  Spring 2009 

 

Science, Technology, and Society 101, Technology and Democracy.  Teaching Assistant.  Drs.  Kathryn Neeley, Michael Gorman, and Benjamin Cohen.  University of Virginia.  Department of Science, Technology, and Society.  Fall 2008

 

Individuals and Society 103, The United States Since 1877.  Teaching Assistant.   Dr. Michael Schaller. University of Arizona, History Department.   Spring 2006.

 

Traditions and Cultures 104, World History to 1550.  Teaching Assistant.  Dr. Douglas Weiner.  University of Arizona, History Department.  Fall 2005.

 

Individuals and Society 103, The United States Since 1877.  Teaching Assistant.  Dr. H. Michael Gelfand. University of Arizona, History Department. Spring 2005.

 

History 446, History of Arizona and The Southwest.  Grader.  Dr. Christina Seger.  University of Arizona, History Department.  Fall 2004.

 

Environmental Studies 101, Introduction into Man, Woman and their Environments.  Teaching Assistant.  Dr. Richard Andrus.  SUNY at Binghamton, Environmental Sciences Department.  Fall 2002.

 

 

SERVICE

 

History Department Representative, Graduate Student Council.  University

of Virginia Graduate School of Arts and Science.  Academic Year 2008-present

 

 

 

 

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

 

            Organization of American Historians (OAH)

            American Historical Association (AHA)

            American Society for Environmental History (ASEH)

            Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)

            Forest History Society (FHS)

 

 

 

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

 

“The Engines of Industry: American Agriculture, British Industrialization, and the Bodies of Urban Laborers, 1800-1900” to be presented at the Society for the History of Technology Annual Conference.  Tacoma, Washington, September 30 – October 3, 2010.

 

“Networks of Energy: An Environmental and Technological Analysis of the North Atlantic Grain Trade, ca 1800-1900,” to be presented at the Bringing STS into Environmental History Conference.  Trondheim, Norway, August 7, 2010.

 

“This Mighty Instrument of Concord: Comparative Advantage, Corn Laws, and the Construction of Naturalized Free Trade,” to be presented at the Association of Business Historians Conference.  York, England, July 17, 2010.

 

“A Natural Theology of Free Trade in the Nineteenth Century,” presented at the Business History Conference. Athens, GA, March 27, 2010

 

“Understanding Economies as Ecologies: A Spatial Analysis of the North Atlantic Grain Trade,” presented at the “Taking Up Space” Conference. Durham, NC, January 29, 2010

 

“KatrinaSIM: A Simulation of Decision-Making about Technology in a Democracy” with Kathryn Neely, Jonas Hart, and Matthew Howell, presented at the Humanities and Technology Association Annual Conference. Charlottesville, VA, September 26, 2009

 

“The Nature of Exchange: British Tourists and New York’s Commercial     Landscape, 1800-1860,” presented at the American Society for   Environmental History Annual Conference. Tallahassee, FL, February 25, 2009 

 

 

 

AWARDS AND HONORS

 

Jefferson Trust Fellowship Global Development Studies Predoctoral Fellowship, 2010-2012

 

University of Virginia Library Graduate Fellowship in Digital Humanities, 2010-2011

 

Larry J. Hackman Research Residency, New York State Archives, 2010

 

Anna K. and Mary E. Cunningham Research Resident, New York State Library, 2010

 

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Research Fellowship, 2010

 

Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Grant, Business History Society, 2010

 

Buckner W. Clay Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities and Technology, Department of Science, Technology and Society, University of Virginia, 2009-2010

 

Robert J. Huskey Travel Fellowship, University of Virginia, 2008-2009

 

Department of History Summer Travel Grant, University of Virginia, Summer 2008

 

Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute Pre-Doctoral Grant, University of Arizona, Spring 2005

 

Desert Southwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Grant, National Park     Service, 2004-2005

 

 

UNPUBLISHED PROFESSIONAL WORK

 

“The Engines of Environmental Change: Agriculture and Industrialization in the United States and England, 1800-1900.”  PhD dissertation in progress.

 

“’Thank God for the Deserts’: Mormon Colonization, Environmental Change, and Climatic Variability in the Little Colorado River Watershed, 1873-1920”  M.A. Thesis.  University of Arizona, 2006.  Drs Katherine Morrissey and Douglas Weiner, advisors.

 

 

 

PUBLICATIONS IN PREPARATION FOR PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS

 

“This Mighty Instrument of Concord: Naturalizing Free Trade during the Corn Law Debate in England, 1830-1846” Article in progress

“The Nature of Exchange: British Tourists and New York’s Commercial Landscape, 1800-1860.” Article in progress.

 

Edmund P. Russell, James Allison, and Thomas D. Finger, “Who’s Got the Power?:  Energy as Historical Framework.”  Article in progress.

 

 

 

CO-AUTHORED PUBLICATIONS IN PEER-REVIEWED JOUNRALS

 

John Sonnet, Barbara J. Morehouse, Thomas Finger, Gregg Garfin, and Nicholas Rattray, “Drought and declining reservoirs: Comparing media discourse in Arizona and New Mexico, 2002-2004,"  Global Environmental Change 16 (Feb 2006): 95-113.

 

Thomas D. Finger and Barbara Morehouse, “River of Change: An Environmental History of Climate and Water Management  in the Upper Little Colorado

            Watershed,”  Journal of the Southwest 49, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 531-561.

 

 

CO-AUTHORED CHAPTERS IN EDITED VOLUMES

 

              Kathryn A. Neeley, Thomas D. Finger, and Jonas Hart, “What Are the Benefits and Challenges of Democratic Decision-Making About Technology?”, in  Technology and Democracy: A Sociotechnical Systems Approach,  edited by Kathryn A, Neeley, 253-258.  San Diego, CA: Cognella, 2010.