Dr Karen Jones
Lecturer in American History (On study leave for the Spring term of the 2008-2009 Academic year)
Director of American Studies
Biography
Karen Jones is a specialist in American history. Her particular interests lie in the areas of western and environmental history. She earned her doctorate from the University of Bristol and worked as a teaching fellow at the University of Essex, before arriving at Kent in 2004.
Her books include Wolf Mountains: The History of Wolves Along the Great Divide – a comparative study of the biology, mythology and culture surrounding wolves in Rocky mountain national parks and The Invention of the Park (co-authored with John Wills) – a survey of the park idea from the Garden of Eden to Disneyland and beyond. Karen was awarded the James Bradley Fellowship at the Montana Historical Society (2004) for her research on hunting and conservation in late nineteenth-century Montana. She is currently working on a post-revisionist monograph on the American West for Edinburgh University Press and a book on hunting, gender, guns and identity in the Rockies (which will probably feature the odd wolf or two).
Karen sits on the editorial board of Environment and History and is an enthusiastic supporter of American Studies. She is interested in supervising postgraduates who want to work on the American West or environmental history.
Taught modules include How the West Was Won (or Lost), a history of the nineteenth century American West focused on deconstructing the popular mythology of cowboys and Indians; From Buffalo Bill to Bison Burgers, a history of the twentieth century American West that highlights such landscapes as Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and Yellowstone National Park; and Beastly Histories, an introduction to animals and humans in the past.
After work, Karen can usually be found mountain-biking in Blean woods or on the beach at Whitstable.
Selected Publications
Books
- (with J. Wills)The Invention of the Park: Recreational Landscapes from the Garden of Eden to Disney's Magic Kingdom, Polity Press, 2005.
- Wolf Mountains: A History of Wolves Along the Great Divide, University of Calgary Press, 2002.
Articles and other publications
- "'Never Cry Wolf' Science, sentiment and the literary rehabilitation of Canis lupus,” Canadian Historical Review 84/1 (March 2003), 65-93.
- “Way out West…Ghost towns, gray wolves, territorial prisons and more!' Celebrating the wolf in the new west,” in Imagining the Big Open: Nature, Identity and Play in the New West, ed. L. Nicholas, E. Bapis & T. J. Harvey (Salt Lake City: Utah University Press, 2003).
- 'National Park System', 'Yellowstone', "Yosemite' and 'Everglades', Dictionary of American History, ed. Stanley Kutler (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002).
- ‘”A Fierce Green Fire:” Passionate Pleas and Wolf Ecology,’ Ethics, Place and Environment, 5/1 (March 2002).
Teaching
Dr Jones is on study leave during the Spring term of the 2008/2009 academic year.
Undergraduate
| Module Code | Title |
|---|---|
| HI763/HI764 | How the West Was Won (or Lost): The American West in the Nineteenth Century |
Contact
E: K.R.Jones@kent.ac.uk
T: 01227 823206
Room: Rutherford N4.W3