Robert Thorson

Professor

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For an introduction, I’ll use my byline for Orion Magazine, America’s leading voice for environmental literature: Midwestern native, turned northwestern geologist, turned northeastern academic. My main scholarly interest targets the physical relationships between humans and their landscapes, especially the intersections of historical archaeology, humans as geophysical and geochemical agents, environmental history and American literature.  My public engagement involves, journalism, committee work, consulting, books, podcasts, and videos.  My original research programs on archaeological geology, paleo-limnology, and neo-tectonics continue.

Education

• Ph.D. Geology. University of Washington, Seattle.
• M.S. Geology.  University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
• B.S.  Earth Science Teaching.  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
• ERTH 4210 / 5210 – Glacial Processes & Materials
• ERTH 2050W – Communicating Earth and Environmental Science
• ERTH 2500 – Earth System Science
• ERTH 3020 – Earth Surface Processes

Six Sample Publications

Journalism

• 2022 – Wall Street Journal. “Two Books on the Young Charles Darwin.”
• 2022 – Connecticut Magazine (Cover Feature). “The Land: Forces of Nature.”

Books

• 2022 – Tantor Media (2002) and Bloomsbury (2002). 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.

Science

• Google Scholar
• Thorson, Robert M., 2023 (in press), Taxonomy and Nomenclature for the Stone Domain in New England.  Historical Archaeology.