Current projects
Health and colonial change in the North
This project includes articles and a book manuscript in preparation that examine the role of epidemic disease and ecological change as part of northern colonialism. The book manuscript is focused on the the Mackenzie and Yukon Rivers and their tributaries between 1865 and 1940. Other articles arising from this work address the subject more broadly with particular attention to polio, tuberculosis, cancer, and nutrition.
The images above show the location of the 1949 polio outbreak (map by L. Piper) and the extent of several other 20th century epidemics across the northern territories (map by Eric Leinberger, UBC).
Previous publications from this project include:
- Piper, L. "Domesticating Poliovirus: Laboratory Monkeys and Vaccine Production." In Landscapes of Science. Ed. T. Adcock. Toronto: NiCHE, 2019.
- Piper, L. "Chesterfield Inlet, 1949 and the Ecology of Epidemic Polio,” Environmental History 20, no.4 (October 2015): 671-698. doi:10.1093/envhis/emv101.
- Piper, L. “From Subsistence to Nutrition: The Canadian State’s involvement in food and diet in the North, 1900-1970.” In Ice Blink: Canada’s Northern Environmental History, ed. Stephen Bocking and Brad Martin. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2016
- Piper, L. “Chronic Disease in the Yukon River Basin.” In Locating Health: Historical and Anthropological Investigations of Place and Health. Ed. E. Dyck and C. Fletcher. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011. Pp. 129-49.
- Piper, L. and J. Sandlos, “A Broken Frontier: Ecological Imperialism in the Canadian North.” Environmental History 12, no.4 (October 2007): 759-95.
An environmental history of Alberta coal
This project examines the post-Second World War expansion of coal mining in Alberta in the context of a broader fossil fuel economy. It looks at environmental regulation and impacts of strip mining for coal. I have collaborated with the Mountain Legacy Project and with Dr. Heather Green on this project to date.
The images above show a 1922 survey image at Cadomin, AB (left), a 2018 repeat image (right), and the overlap of the two in the centre.
Recent publications and podcasts arising from this project include:
- YourForest podcast on environmental history in October 2018.
- Piper, L. and H. Green, "A Province Powered by Coal: The Renaissance of Coal Mining in Late Twentieth Century Alberta," Canadian Historical Review 98, no. 3 (Sept. 2017): 532-567
- Piper, L. "Coal in the Age of the Oil Sands." Environmental Knowledge, Environmental Politics: Case Studies from Canada and Western Europe. Rachel Carson Center Perspectives, 4 (2016): 69-75.
Recently completed
Environmental activism on the ground
This project, in collaboration with Dr. Jon Clapperton, has examined the history and character of late-20th and early-21st century environmentalist and Indigenous rights activism in Canada, the United States, and beyond. Rather than focusing on the Green Giants—large, international environmental institutions— this book and journal issue highlight the power of small green—local, small-scale environmental and Indigenous organizing.
The book is available freely online through the University of Calgary Press. The journal issue is available through the RCC's Environment and Society Portal.Thinking Mountains
As one of several mountain studies scholars working at the University of Alberta, I have helped to organize our three Thinking Mountains conferences (Banff 2018, Jasper 2015, Edmonton 2012) and student field trips to the national parks (Banff and Jasper).
