Robert M. Thorson

Professor

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My byline for Orion Magazine is: “Midwestern native, turned northwestern geologist, turned northeastern academic.” My main scholarly interest is the interweave between humans and their landscapes where the threads of geology, archaeology, ecology, environmental history, and American literature come together.   My teaching concentrates on the Honors Core Curriculum and upper division ERTH courses. My public engagement involves, freelance journalism, book reviewing, public presentations, forensic consulting, books, podcasts, and videos, most notably for the Stone Wall Initiative, the Stone Pavilion Project, and Climate Underground.

Education

• Ph.D. Geology. 1979. University of Washington, Seattle.
• M.S. Geology.  1975. University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
• B.S.  Earth Science Teaching.  1973. Bemidji State College, Minnesota

Courses 

• Honors Core: ERTH 1000E  – The Human Epoch: Living in the Anthropocene
• Honors Core: ERTH 1055 – Earth Science and the American Landscape
• Honors First Year Seminar: UNIV 1784 – Climate Underground
• ERTH 2020 – Earth Surface Processes
• ERTH 3210 / 5210 – Glacial Processes & Materials
• ERTH 2050W – Communicating Earth and Environmental Science

Sample Publications

Journalism

• 2026 – Wall Street Journal, “Mineral Wisdom; The Whispers of Rock Review,” of Anjana Khatwa’s The Whispers of Rock, January 16, 2026
• 2025 – The Atlantic.  “Why Concord?”   for the special issue The Unfinished Revolution commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Co-authored with Robert A. Gross.
• 2023 – Smithsonian, “How stone walls became a signature landform of New England.” Awarded “Best History Writing of 2023” by History News Network.
• 2022 – Connecticut Magazine (Cover Feature). “The Land: Forces of Nature.”

Books

• 2026 – Princeton University Press. The Walden Experiments: The Science of Henry David Thoreau (in press for Sep 2026).
• 2022 – Bloomsbury  (2002) and Tantor Media (2023). Audio: Stone By Stone: The Magnificent History in New England Stone Walls, Read by Robert Thorson.
• 2017 – Harvard University Press. The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau’s River Years.

Articles

• Google Scholar
• Thorson, Robert M., 2025, Geoheritage of the Stone Pavilion, University of Connecticut at Storrs, CT, U.S.A. Geoheritage: An International Journal 17, Article 156 (Oct 2025).
• Thorson, Robert M., 2025, Conserving the Historic Stone Walls of New England.  The Public Historian 47 (in press for Feb 2025).
• Thorson, Robert M., 2023, Taxonomy and Nomenclature for the Stone Domain in New England.  Historical Archaeology 57, 1353-1384.