History Department
University of Saskatchewan
9 Campus Drive
721 Arts Building
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 6A5
Phone: 306-966-1333
jessicamariedewitt@gmail.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Candidate, History, University of Saskatchewan, Expected 2018; Dissertation (Untitled): Comparative History of State and Provincial Parks. Dissertation Committee: Geoff Cunfer, Bill Waiser, Keith Carlson, Martha Smith-Norris, and Ernie Walker
M.A., History, University of Rochester, 2011; M.A. Thesis: “A Convergence of Conservation and Recreational Ideals: The Cook Forest State Park Campaign, 1910-1928.”
B.A., Summa Cum Laude, History, Bethany College WV, 2008; Senior Thesis: “A Lifestyle Off the Beaten Path: Cook Forest State Park and the Men and Women of Its Tourism Industry.”
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
State, Provincial, and National Parks
Environmental History
Recreation
Tourism/Eco-Tourism
Urban Nature
Spatial History
Canadian and American West
Contemporary US History
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
“Provincial and State Park History and Its Connection to Contemporary Society,” Graduate Research Conference 2014, University of Saskatchewan
March 7, 2014
“’Nearby and Natural’: Stretching the Definition of Nature in Ontario’s Bronte Creek Provincial Park and Pennsylvania’s Point State Park,” NiCHE Prairie Environment Network Workshop, University of Saskatchewan
April 26, 2014
“Softening the Divide Between Natural and Man-Made: Exploring the Flexible Definition of Nature in Two Urban State and Provincial Parks,” 2014 Fort Garry Lectures, University of Manitoba
May 2, 2014
“’Nearby and Natural’: Stretching the Definition of Nature in Ontario’s Bronte Creek Provincial Park and Pennsylvania’s Point State Park,” 2014 Canadian Historical Association Annual Meeting, Brock University
May 26, 2014
“Harvesting Nostalgia: A Historical Look at the Farm Park Concept and its Conflicting Function in Breaking Down and Strengthening the Barrier between Urban and Rural Life in North America”, Second World Congress of Environmental History, Guimarães, Portugal
July 2014
“Parks For and By the People: Acknowledging the Role of Non-Elites in the Formation and Protection of State and Provincial Parks in the United States and Canada,” Environmentalism from Below: Appraising the Efficacy of Small-Scale and Subaltern Environmentalist Organizations, University of Alberta
August 7, 2014
“Reviving the Distant Clarion: The Ecological Degradation and Expedient Restoration of Pennsylvania’s Clarion River,” American Society for Environmental History 2015, Washington, D.C.
April 2015
“Is All History Now Environmental History? The Anthropocene in Historical Context,” Lead Organizer and Participant, Special Roundtable Co-Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Association of Canada and the Canadian Historical Association, Congress 2015, University of Ottawa
June 2, 2015
“Park Formation as Catalyst for Restoration: A Pennsylvania River’s Ecological Revivification,” Canadian Historical Association 2015 Meeting, University of Ottawa
June 3, 2015
Research Presentation, Beyond Borders: A Workshop on Transnationalism, University of Saskatchewan
September 11, 2015
“’Unsurpassed Natural Setting for a Great City’: An Urban Renaissance, Point State Park, the Ohio River Valley, and the National State Park Movement,” New Paths in the Environmental History of North America and the Ohio Valley, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky
October 9, 2015
“’Fortunately Our American Neighbours have been Experimenting’: Influences and Objectives During the Formative Years of the Albertan Park System, 1930-1960,” Western Canadian Studies Association 2015, University of Manitoba
November 5-7, 2015
“Middle Park Syndrome: Securing a Place for Provincial and State Park History in Canadian and US Conservation History,” American Society for Environmental History, Seattle
March 30-April 2, 2016
“Tales of a Park Not Yet Created: The Fish Creek Provincial Park Questionnaire, 1974,” Canadian Historical Association, 2016, University of Calgary.
May 30-June 1, 2016
“”Oh, that doesn’t count. You’ve got to have a park with water”: Visualizing the Flexibility of “Natural” in Pennsylvania’s State Parks,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, 2016, Shippensburg University
October 6-8, 2016
“Social Media and Canadian History” Lead Organizer and Participant, Roundtable Sponsored by ActiveHistory.ca, Canadian Historical Association 2017, Ryerson University
May 2017
““Cd’A Indian Tribe wants Heyburn State Park Back”: An Examination of Federal, State, and Indigenous Environmental Conflict,” American Historical Association, Washington D.C.
January 4-8, 2017
PUBLICATIONS:
Jessica DeWitt, “Between Stewardship and Exploitation: Private Tourism, State Parks, and Environmentalism,” RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society: Environmental Knowledge, Environmental Politics (December 2016): 41-46.
Jessica DeWitt, “Parks For and By the People: Acknowledging Ordinary People in the Formation, Protection, and Use of State and Provincial Parks,” in Environmental Activism on the Ground: Processes and Possibilities of Small Green and Indigenous Organizing, eds. Liza Piper and Jonathan Clapperton, under contract with University of Calgary Press (expected 2017).
BOOK REVIEWS
Jessica DeWitt. Review of Rimby, Susan, Mira Lloyd Dock and the Progressive Era Conservation Movement. H-Pennsylvania, H-Net Reviews. September, 2014.
Jessica DeWitt. Review of Reichwein, PearlAnn, Climber’s Paradise: Making Canada’s Mountain Parks, 1906–1974. Canadian Journal of History 50.3 (2015): 601-603.
Jessica DeWitt, Review of Workman, Allen K., Schoodic Point: History on the Edge of Acadia National Park. Maine History 50 (Summer 2016): 109-110.
Jessica DeWitt. Review of Piper, Liza and Lisa Szabo-Jones. Sustaining the West: Cultural Responses to Canadian Environments. Environmental History (22.3): DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emx077.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
Folklore Fellowship, University of Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society
September 2014-August 2017
Recipient of Joan Mitchell Travel Award, Laurier Archives, Waterloo, Ontario
2014
Doctorial Graduate Scholarship, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
2011-2014
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Research Assistant, for Geoff Cunfer, “Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture, 1700-2000” Project
September 2013-Present
HGIS Lab Assistant-Contract Mapping and Website Editor, for Geoff Cunfer, University of Saskatchewan HGIS Lab
September 2012-Present
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Guest Lecturer, “Conquering the Digital Realm: Crafting the Historian’s Trade for the Digital Age,” HIST 498: Oral History, University of Saskatchewan
February 2, 2015
Guest Lecturer, “North America’s Best Idea?: The Significance of National Parks in the American and Canadian West,” Imagining American and Canadian Wests, University of Saskatchewan
February 4, 2014
Teaching Assistant, Post-Confederation Canada, University of Saskatchewan
Term 2 2013.
Guest Lecturer, “North America’s Best Idea?: The Significance of National Parks in the American and Canadian West,” Imagining American and Canadian Wests, University of Saskatchewan
February 12, 2013
Teaching Assistant, Canadian History from the Pre-Contact Period to 1867, University of Saskatchewan
Term 1 2012.
Teaching Assistant, The Americas, University of Saskatchewan
Term 1 and 2 2011-2012.
GIS PROJECTS
Seven Maps of Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands, for Martha Smith-Norris, Book Manuscript
Map of Community-Based Organizations in Saskatchewan, for Gloria DeSantis, Tara Todd, and Paul Hackett
Austrian Map Digitization Project, for Sustainable Farm Systems: Long-Term Socio-Ecological Metabolism in Western Agriculture, 1700-2000
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Editor and Chief, Folklore, Magazine of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society
September 2014- Present
Member and Social Media Assistant, American Society for Environmental History Graduate Student Caucus
September 2014- Present
Webmaster, University of Saskatchewan HGIS Lab and Sustainable Farm Systems Project
September 2014-Present
Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) New Scholars Representative
June 2014- June 2015
Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) Social Media Editor
April 2014- Present
Contributor, The Otter, Blog of Network in Canadian History of the Environment
Adobe InDesign – Introduction Course, University of Saskatchewan
August 19, 21, 2014
Discussion Leader, NICHE New Scholars Digital Discussion of Wilderness and Waterpower by Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles
November 27, 2013
Historical GIS Workshop and Seminar, Instructor: Geoff Cunfer, HGIS Lab at the University of Saskatchewan
September 2012- April 2013
DEPARTMENTAL TALKS
“Folklore Magazine and Department Involvement in Social Media,” 2015 History Book Launch and Research Celebration, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
February 13, 2015
“Networking and Self-Promotion: Navigating the Academic Corner of Social Media,” Online Presence Workshop, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan
February 11, 2014
CONFERENCE PLANNING
Conference Planner, Dissent and History: First Annual Graduate Student Conference, Department of History, University of Rochester
February 2010
Organizer, Historical Societies Leadership Forum, Jefferson County Historical Society, Brookville, Pennsylvania
June 2007
RELATED PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
GIS, ArcMap 10.1
Blogging
Social Media
Adobe InDesign
INTERNSHIPS
Archival Intern, Jefferson County Historical Society, Brookville, Pennsylvania
May-August 2007
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Social Director, History Graduate Student Committee, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
2012-2013; 2013-2014
Student Member, Search Committee for Environmental History Position, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
January 2013
Secretary/Treasurer, History Graduate Student Committee, History Department, University of Saskatchewan
2011-2012
Board Member and Conference Planner, University of Rochester History Graduate Student Society, History Department, University of Rochester
2009-2010
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT/OUTREACH
Volunteer, Saskatoon SPCA
September 2013-Present
Member, “Wild About Saskatoon”
May 2013-Present
Interviewer, “Election 2008 Oral History Project” Sponsored by Office of the Rochester City Historian, the Monroe County Historian’s Office, the Monroe County Library System, and the Rochester Regional Library, Rochester, New York
April 2009
LANGUAGE
German- Can Read with Dictionary
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP/AFFILIATIONS
Member, Canadian Historical Association
September 2013- Present
Member, American Historical Association
January 2013- Present
NICHE (Network in Canadian History of the Environment)
September 2011-Present
