Historian Jared Farmer Named Carnegie Fellow

Jared Farmer, a cultural and environmental historian whose work appeals to lay and academic audiences alike, has been awarded a prestigious 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. Farmer, an associate professor of History in the College of Arts and Sciences, will use the $200,000 to complete a creative non-fiction book on the human relationship with long-lived trees and our larger relationship with nature in a time of climate change.

Jared Farmer

“I am bringing together the history of trees and the science of longevity to contemplate the ethics and politics of long-term thinking in the Anthropocene,” said Farmer. “I’m a historian by training, but this new project includes aspects of science writing as well as creative writing.”

This is Farmer’s third significant award within the year. In July 2016, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Scholar Program, which supports well-researched books intended for a broad readership. He has also been recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with a grant that supports authors of books that enhance the public understanding of science and technology.

“This recognition is very well deserved,” said Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD. “As an historian, Jared Farmer is passionately engaged in blending natural and cultural history with that of environmental ethics and science journalism in an effort to further understand our world. His research and writing efforts are testament to that passion, and the value of a liberal arts education at Stony Brook University.”

Farmer received his PhD in history from Stanford University in 2005, and joined Stony Brook in 2007. He is the author of three books, including On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (Harvard, 2008), which won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians for the best-written non-fiction book on an American theme. He frequently gives invited lectures across the country on topics related to the American West and environmental history.

“Jared Farmer has established himself as a promising scholar in environmental history,” said Michael Bernstein, Stony Brook University Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. “His important research has expanded our understandings of society’s complex relationship with nature. Congratulations to Jared on becoming an Andrew Carnegie Fellow.” 

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