Too often, historians overlook the crucial role played by the physical world in the human past. Last fall, students in “Environmental History” (HIS 316) not only learned about the significance of nature in U.S. history, but also applied new perspectives and questions to a semester-long project on the environmental history of Augsburg College.

Using on-campus archives as well as collections at the Minneapolis Public Library, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the University of Minnesota, the nine students examined the history of Augsburg’s landscape, the history of waste, water, and energy flows in and out of campus buildings, the history of spatial relationships forged by social interactions on and off-campus, and the history of environmental awareness at the college. In the words of Alex Hoselton ’08, they “asked new questions about our history.” Continue reading “People and Nature in Augsburg's Past” →