FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETuesday, January 28, 2014
Writer/Contact: Amanda E. Sharp
Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Press announces James C. Giesen, Mississippi State University (MSU), as the new series editor for Environmental History and the American South (EHAS). Giesen will be replacing Paul S. Sutter, University of Colorado, Boulder, effective February 1.
“It’s a great honor to take over as editor of a series that has done so much to build and shape the field of southern environmental history,” said Giesen. “It’s hard to think of a book series that has had such a direct impact on the research, methodologies, and scholarship of a field of history in as short a time. I hope to build on the series’ success by continuing to find manuscripts that push the boundaries of the field. Historians and other scholars have been so influenced by the books in this series that they’re beginning to ask new questions and apply fresh, imaginative approaches to understanding the South’s environmental past. My goal is to make sure that this next wave of scholarship is part of the EHAS series as well.”
Giesen is the author of Boll Weevil Blues: Cotton, Myth, and Power in the American South, published by the University of Chicago Press. It has won several major awards – including, most recently, the Southern Historical Association Francis B. Simkins Award. Geisen is also the executive secretary of the Agricultural History Society, and he directs the Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment in the South (CHASES) at MSU.
Sutter will be taking over the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books series at the University of Washington Press. He will continue to support the EHAS series by serving on the advisory board.
“This is a move that I have been contemplating for several years now, since I relocated from the University of Georgia to the University of Colorado, “said Sutter. “ While I remain critically interested in the environmental history of the South and believe that the South remains one of the most fruitful regions for future environmental history scholarship, my career trajectory here in Colorado has slowly pulled me away from the region.”
“James’ superb scholarship and admirable organizational energy make him a great fit for the series, and I am excited to see what he does with it in the years to come,” said Sutter. “I have invested a lot of energy in the series, and it is important to me that it continues to enjoy success. I have been so thankful to the entire press for their continuing commitment to producing beautiful books. I leave the series editorship, then, confident that it is in the hands of a great team.”
"This change of series editor comes at an auspicious time for UGA Press and the EHAS series,” said Mick Gusinde-Duffy, UGA Press editor-in-chief. “The series has a rock-solid reputation and we look forward to building on that success with James Giesen's energetic leadership and editorial vision. We are so grateful to have had the brilliant Paul Sutter as our founding editor, and he remains close to the series via our advisory board. Together, we will refocus our efforts to recruit and cultivate the very best, most innovative scholarship in this vibrant field."
For more information on the University of Georgia Press: http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/about_us/who_we_are
For more information on the Environmental History and the American South series: http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/series/EHAS
