Philip Wight
Philip Wight, Ph.D.
Department Chair and Associate Professor
Email: pawight@alaska.edu
Phone: 907-474-5203
Office: GRUE 613A
Courses taught:
-
ACNS F201 The Circumpolar North: An Introductory Overview
-
HIST F411 / ACNS F611 Environmental History
-
HIST F453 / HONR F453 / ACNS F453 / ACNS F653 Fire, Ice & the Fate of Humanity: A History of Energy & Climate Change
-
HIST F461 / ACNS F661 History of Alaska
-
HIST F483 / HIST F683 / ACNS F683 20th Century History of the Circumpolar North
Dr. Wight advises the B.A. and Graduate Certificate programs.
Research interests:
Alaskan history, modern circumpolar history, energy systems, political economy, mobility
and infrastructure, and climate change
¾þÃÈÈÊÓƵ, Fairbanks AK.
Assistant Professor of History, and Arctic & Northern Studies August 2021-Present
Assistant Director, Arctic & Northern Studies July 2023-Present
Affiliate Faculty, Alaska Center for Energy and Power July 2023-Present
Affiliate Faculty, Climate Scholars Program July 2022-Present
Term Assistant Professor of History and Northern Studies May, 2020-August 2021
Lecturer in History December 2019- May, 2020
Brandeis University, Waltham MA.
Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Year Fellow August 2019-May 2020
Rose and Irving Crown Fellow, Brandeis University August 2013-May 2019
Ohio University, Athens OH.
Contemporary History Institute Fellow August 2011-May 2013
2013-2020
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.
History Ph.D.
Qualifying Examinations passed with Distinction, December, 2015.
2011-2013
Ohio University, Athens, OH.
History M.A. with Distinction, Contemporary History Institute graduate.
2005-2008
University of Maryland, ¾þÃÈÈÊÓƵ Park, MD.
History B.A. with Honors, Minor in Astronomy
- 2024. (Forthcoming) “A Brief History of Alaskan Electrification, 1893-2023” 2 Peter Asmus, ed. Alaska’s Energy Innovators: How Communities are Responding to the Climate Crisis. Fairbanks AK: University of Alaska Press.
- 2024. “Atomic Currents: The U.S. Military & Nuclear Energy in the Alaskan Pacific”, in An American Lake? The United States, War and Environment in the Recent Pacific World. Ed. Beth Baily, Andrew Isenberg, Paul Landsberg. Lawrence KS: University of Kansas Press.
- 2023. “”, Journal of Energy History/Revue d'Histoire de l'Énergie [Online].
- 2023. “Petroleum Development and the State in Arctic North America, 1919-1977”. Cambridge History of the Polar Regions. Ed. Adrian Howkins and Peder Roberts. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
- 2021. “” in The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region’s Environmental Histories. Ed. Brian Frehner and Kathleen Brosnan. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project.
- 2017. “The Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism,” in . Ed. Louis Hyman and Joseph Tohill. Ithaca, NY: ILR/ Cornell University Press.
- 2024. (Forthcoming). “Alaska’s Spine Road: Access, Equity and Safety on the Dalton Highway, 1974-2024” 2024. Review of John M. Findlay, The Mobilized West: 1940-2000. Published in Alaska History.
- 2024. “Electrifying Alaska’s Railbelt: A Generation and Transmission History, 1904-2024”, Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) Technical Paper.
- 2022. “”, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). December. Quoted in and .
- 2017. “”, Yale Environment 360. 16th November. Quoted in , November 24th and the , November 26th.
- 2017. “”, part of mini-series “Hope and Environmental History”, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). 7 June.
- 2017. “”, Part of Seeds: New Research in Environmental History series for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE).
- 2015. Committee Report, Lead Co-Author. “Final Report and Recommendations.” Brandeis’ Exploratory Committee on Fossil Fuel Divestment.
- 2013. “” Review of Lewis Perry’s Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition (Yale University Press, 2013), in Waging Nonviolence.
- 2018-2019 Dissertation Year Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- 2015, March University Prize Instructorship, Brandeis University
- 2014-2015 Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award, Brandeis University
- 2014, 2016, 2018 Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI) Lectureship
- 2013-2018 Rose and Irving Crown Fellowship, Brandeis University
- 2011-2013 Contemporary History Institute Fellowship, Ohio University
- 2008, April Phi Beta Kappa
- 2008, May Senior Marshal, University of Maryland Graduation
- 2004, November Eagle Scout, Troop 674, Cincinnati, Ohio
- 2024, April Yale Agrarian Studies Colloquium Travel Grant
- 2023, June Alaska Center for Energy and Power Electrification Research Grant
- 2023 & 2024, January United Academics (UNAC) Faculty Development Travel Award
- 2022, December “Petrocultures” Conference Travel Grant, Göteborg, Sweden
- 2021, September Center for Safety Equity in Transportation (CSET) Research Grant P.I.; Co-P.I. Dr. Nathan Belz; “Access, Equity, and Safety in Rural Road Development: Historical Evidence from the Dalton Highway”
- 2021, October “US, War, & the Environment” Conference Grant
- 2020, September UAF New Faculty Startup Grant
- 2019, November Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) Travel Grant
- 2019, September “Energy and Scale” Conference Grant, Energy in Society, U. of Calgary
- 2019, May Brandeis History Department Conference Grant
- 2019, February Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Travel Grant
- 2017, December American Society for Environmental History Travel Grant
- 2017, December American Historical Association Council Annual Meeting Travel Grant
- 2017, April Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Research Grant
- 2017, January Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Travel Grant
- 2016, December Exploratory Research Grant, Hagley Museum and Library
- 2016, December American Society for Environmental History Travel Grant, Chicago, IL
- 2016, October “The Great Plains: An Environmental History” Conference Grant (NSF)
- 2016, April Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Research Grant
- 2015, September Doctoral Mentor Research Grant, Brandeis History Department
- 2013, December Brandeis Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Research Grant
- 2012, September Ohio University History Department Travel Grant
- 2012, June and December Contemporary History Institute Thesis Research Grant
- 2024 (Forthcoming) Paper: “Children of the Midnight Sun: A History of Alaskan Electrification, 1893-2023”, World Congress of Environmental History, Oulu, Finland. August.
- 2024. (Forthcoming) Invited Colloquium: “The Petro-Welfare State: Alaska’s Experiment in Fiscal and Ecological Sustainability”. Yale Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, New Haven CT. April.
- 2024 (Forthcoming). “Electrifying Alaska’s History and Future”, American Society for Environmental history annual conference. Denver, CO.
- April. 2024. Invited Lecture: “Modern Magic: Electrification of Alaska’s Railbelt, 1904-2024”, Alaska Society of Professional Engineers “E-Week”, Anchorage, AK. February.
- 2024. Invited Lecture: “The Atom in the Alaskan Anthropocene: Nuclear Power and the New Arctic”, for Alaska in the Crosshairs: Climate, Arctic Environment, & the Resurgence of Nuclear Weapons. University of Alaska Southeast. February.
- 2024. Invited Lecture: “Atomic Currents: Nuclear Power in Alaskan History”, Alaska Center for Energy & Power Nuclear Working Group. January.
- 2023. Invited Lecture: “Pillars of Smoke: Energizing Interior Alaska, 1904-2024”. Alaska Hall of Fame. Fairbanks, AK. November.
- 2023: Paper: “Children of the Midnight Sun: A History of Alaskan Electrification”, Alaska Historical Society annual conference. Soldotna, AK and online. October.
- 2023 Invited Lecture: “Pillars of Smoke: Energy and Ecology in Interior Alaska, 1902-2022”. Tanana-Yukon Historical Society. Fairbanks, AK. October.
- 2023 Invited Lecture: “Roads Not Taken: Access and Tourism on Alaska’s Wilderness Parkway”, Alaska Travel Industries Association conference, Fairbanks AK. October.
- 2023 Invited Lecture: “Children of the Midnight Sun: A Social History of Alaskan Energy”. Alaska Center for Energy and Power Microgrid Bootcamp. Fairbanks, AK. May.
- 2023 Invited Lecture: “”. Arctic Environments Speaker Series. University of Washington. April.
- 2023. Invited Lecture: “Is Infrastructure Destiny? Path Dependence and Carbon Lock-In on The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System”. MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. March.
- 2023. Panel Organizer & Paper Presenter: “Like an Iceberg: Reckoning with the Real Nature of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.” Part of panel: “The Silver Snake at Fifty: Environmental Consequences & Impacts of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System”. American Society for Environmental history annual conference. Boston, MA. March.
- 2023. Roundtable Chair & Moderator, “Northern Environments and Northern Borderlands”, American Society for Environmental history annual conference. Boston, MA. March.
- 2022. Invited Speaker: “Northern Crescent: The Electrification of Fairbanks, 1898-2022”, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, UAF, Fairbanks Alaska. November.
- 2022. Paper: “Atomic Currents: The U.S. Military and Nuclear Power in the Alaskan Pacific.” CLA Works-in-Progress Seminar. Fairbanks, AK. November.
- 2022. Paper: “Whose Haul Road? How the Dalton Highway Became Public, 1968-2001”, Alaska Historical Society annual conference. Anchorage AK and online. October.
- 2022. Invited Speaker: “A Historic Perspective on GVEA’s Strategic Generation Plan”, Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) convening. Fairbanks, Alaska. October.
- 2022. Introduction to Bathsheba Demuth’s keynote lecture: “History from a Dogsled: The Yukon and the Stakes of Telling the Past”, Alaska Historical Society annual conference, Anchorage AK and online. October.
- 2022. Invited Speaker: “Cracking Open the North? Contesting Access on the Dalton Highway, 1968-1994” for “Arctic Infrastructures: Histories of Exploration, Colonization and Industrial Development” conference. Lulea University of Technology (Sweden) & online. June 14th -15th .
- 2022. Paper: “Blue Eyed Arabs & the Silver Snake: Petrocultures of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System”, Journal of Energy History workshop. Gothenburg, Sweden & online. May and November.
- 2021. Paper: “Atomic Currents: The Cold War & Nuclear Powers in the Alaskan Pacific” for “The United States, War, & the Environment in the Twentieth-Century Pacific World” conference, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS, October 15-16, 2021.
- 2021. Paper: “Right of Way: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act”. Alaska History Society annual conference. October 14th.
- 2021. Invited Speaker: “”, TEK Talks: Working with Indigenous Peoples, UAF, March 1st.
- 2021. Panelist: “”, Network in Canadian History and Environment, Whitehorse, Yukon (virtual), January 22nd .
- 2020. Invited Commentor: “Climate Politics and Political Climate: A Four-Year Forecast.” International Arctic Research Center (IARC). ¾þÃÈÈÊÓƵ. November 19th .
- 2020. Commenter on Bathsheba Demuth’s lecture, “Do Whales Judge Us?” University of Alaska Fairbanks. Online. Fairbanks Alaska, October 26th.
- 2020. Paper: “Roadblock: The Origins of Alaska’s Anti-Roads Movement, 1960-1980”. Alaska History Society annual conference. Online. Oct 9th .
- 2020. Invited Speaker. “Black Veins: An Environmental History of U.S. Petroleum Pipelines, 1865-2020”. Spring 2020 Distinguished Speaker Series. Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Waltham, MA. April 24th .
- 2020. Invited Speaker. “A Private Enterprise? The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the Public Interest.” Fahrenkamp Luncheon. Fairbanks, Alaska. March.
- 2020. Invited Speaker. “A Brief History of Alaska’s Extractive Political Economy”. Alaska’s Just Transition Summit. Fairbanks, Alaska. January.
- 2019. Panelist. “Railbelt Electric Grid.” Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) Speaker Series. Anchorage Museum. Anchorage, Alaska. November.
- 2019. Paper: “The Weight of a Thread: Interconnection, Inertia, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System”. Energy and Scale: Trans-Scalar and Multi-Scalar Interactions in Energy Transitions. University of Calgary & Max Plank Institute for History of Science. Banff, Canada. September.
- 2019. (Accepted but not delivered) Paper: “PIGS, Spills, and Spies: Maintaining the TransAlaska Pipeline System”. 3 rd World Congress of Environmental History, Florianapolis Brazil. July.
- 2019. Paper: “Slick Promises: (Mis)regulating the Marine Segment of the TransAlaska Pipeline System.” American Society for Environmental History. Yearly Conference. Columbus, OH. April.
- 2019. Lecture: “Valdez to the Refuge: The Irony of the Petro-Welfare State”, Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition. Stone Soup, Fairbanks AK, March.
- 2018. Lecture: “State of Nature: Petroleum and Preservation on the Alaskan Frontier”.
•
- NewBridge on the Charles. Harvard Medical School Affiliate. May. •
- Dedham, MA. May. Briarwood Retirement Community. Worcester, MA. April.
- 2018. Paper: “No Refuge: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the Industrialization of the Arctic.” New Perspectives in Environmental History Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT. April.
- 2018. Paper: “,” American Historical Association. Washington, D.C. January.
- 2018. Panel Organizer & Paper Presenter: “No Refuge: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the Industrialization of the Arctic,” part of panel: “Manifold Destines: Exploring the Environmental History of Pipelines,” American Society for Environment History annual conference. Riverside, CA. March.
- 2017. Paper: “Creating an Energy Heartland: How Pipelines Fueled the Great Plains”, for National Science Foundation-funded Conference, “The Great Plains: An Environmental History.” Norman, Oklahoma. May, 2017.
- 2017. Paper: “Hope Beyond Progress: Christopher Lasch and the Origins of the ‘Thin Green Line’” American Society for Environmental History Conference. Chicago, IL. March-April.
- 2016. Invited Lecture Series: “Calling All Elders: The Fierce Urgency of Climate Change.”
- Briarwood Retirement Community, Worcester, MA. May.
- 2-part series: NewBridge on the Charles, Dedham, MA. January.
- 2016. Moderator. “Money Matters: Divestment as Political Power.” Bill McKibben, Craig Altemose, Dr. Dan Perlman, Abbie Goldberg. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. February.
- 2015. Paper: “The Violence of Economic Growth as God: E.F. Schumacher’s Green Economic Vision”. Peace History Society. University of St. Joseph, West Hartford CT. October.
- 2015. Paper. “The Carbon TAP in the Anthropocene.” Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning 3rd Annual Conference: “Poles Apart, Melting Together: Science and the Humanities Confront the Anthropocene”. Boston University, Boston, MA. June.
- 2014. Moderator. “The Good News on Climate Change: Brandeis and a World of Solutions.” John Ballantine, Charles Chester, Judy Herzfeld, Frank Lowenstein, Eric Olson, Sabine von Mering. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. November.
- 2014. Invited Lecture. “Direct Action and the Rise of Supply-Side Environmentalism.” 350 Massachusetts. Wayland, MA. October.
- 2012. Invited Lecture: “Steward Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog and the Politics of Ecotopia.” Dr. Paul Milazzo’s Environmental History course. Ohio University, Athens, OH. November.
- 2014. Paper: “A Historical View of the Future: The 40th Anniversary of Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia.” Tuft’s Graduate Humanities Conference. Tufts University, Medford, MA. October.
- 2013. Paper: “John Kenneth Galbraith, Barry Commoner, and the Origins of American EcoSocialism.” Ohio University's History Graduate Conference. Yearly conference. Athens, OH. February.
- 2012. Paper: “The Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism.” University of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference. Boulder, CO. September.
- 2022. “” Anchorage Daily News. December 21st .
- 2021, “”, Fairbanks Daily News Miner, November 7th .
- 2024. Kavitha George. “.” Alaska Public Media. March 5th.
- 2024. “Sue Perkins: Lost in Alaska.” Channel 5 UK. February, 23rd.
- 2024. . KTVF 11 Fairbanks. January 3rd.
- 2023. Max Graham, “” Grist, November 15th.
- 2023. Rebecca Leber, “,” Vox, September 8th.
- 2023. Kavitha George, “.” Alaska Public Media, June 5th.
- 2023. Eric Paglia, “”, Polar Geopolitics, May 21st.
- 2023. “” Al Jazeera, March 22nd.
- 2023. Zoya Teirstein & Jake Bittle, “,” Grist, March 16th.
- 2023. Ben Hulac, “,” CQ Roll Call, February 15th.
- 2023. “Battle for Alaska’s Oil”, National Geographic. February 9th.
- 2023. “,” Alhurra. January 20th. 2022. Lois Parshley, “”, The Atlantic, December 24th. 2022. Dan Bross, “”, KUAC Morning News, August 12th.
- 2022. Victoria Peterson, “”, High Country News, July 13th. Reprinted as “”, Popular Science, July 14th.
- 2022. Morgan Krakow, “,” Anchorage Daily News.
- 2022. Subject Matter Expert: “Alaska Pipeline” Documentary, American Built series. Fox Business.
- 2022. Andy McGlashen, “”, Audubon Magazine, January 24th.
- 2021. David Hasemyer, “,” Inside Climate News, October 12th.
- 2021. “On This Day: The Sale of Alaska”, Times Radio, London, UK. March 30th.
- 2021. Andy McGlashen, “”, Audubon Magazine, January 4th.
- 2020. John Dougherty, “,” KTVF 11, December 7th.
- 2020. Victoria Petersen, “”, High Country News, September 11th.
- 2017. Hal Bernton and Lynda V. Mapes, “Drilling for Oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is in the GOP Tax Plan. Can Maria Cantwell Block the Effort?” Seattle Times, November 24th.
¾þÃÈÈÊÓƵ
- HIST 275: Perspectives on History (“The Craft of History”)—Fall, 2021, 2022.
- HIST 461/661 ACNS 662: History of Alaska—Fall 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023; Spring 2024.
- HIST 434: North American Energy History—Spring 2021.
- HIST 434: “Fire, Ice & The Fate of Humanity: A History of Energy and Climate Change”—Spring 2022, 2023, 2024.
- ACNS 201: Introduction to Arctic and Northern Studies—Fall 2020, 2021, 2023.
- HIST 411/ ACNS 611: Environmental History—Fall 2020, 2022.
- HIST 483/ ACNS 683: Twentieth Century History of the Circumpolar North—Spring, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.
- “Silver Snake: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the World It Made”, Osher Lifelong Learning Course, UAF. Fall 2021; OLE, Anchorage, Fall 2022.
Boston Metropolitan Institutions
- 2018, Spring. “Wilderness Gas Station: An Environmental History of Alaska”
- NewBridge on the Charles, Harvard Medical School Affiliate, Dedham, MA
- Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Lectureship, Brandeis University
- 2016, Summer. “Cheaper, Faster, Farther: A Global History of Human Mobility”
- NewBridge on the Charles, Harvard Medical School Affiliate, Dedham, MA
- 2016, Spring. “The United States of Energy: Power, Labor and Technology in American
History”.
- University Prize Instructorship course, Brandeis University, Waltham MA
- 2016, Spring. “The Burning Question: A History of Energy Poverty and Climate Justice”
- Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Lectureship, Waltham, MA
- 2015, Spring & Summer. “Heating Up: The History of the Climate Change Debate”
- Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Lectureship, Waltham, MA
- NewBridge on the Charles, Harvard Med. School Affiliate, Dedham, MA
Teaching Fellow, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
- 2018, Spring American Environmental History
- 2016, Spring Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700
- 2015, Fall Japan and Korea in Modern World History
- 2015, Spring The Global Opium Trade, 1755-Present
- 2014, Fall East Asian Civilization
2013-2016 Writing Tutor, Brandeis University Writing Center, Waltham, MA
2008, May-August Cincinnati Museum Center, History Museum “Freedom Sisters” Exhibit Interpreter; exhibit on prominent female civil rights activists
- October 2022- Present. Board Member, Alaska Historical Society.
- December 2020-Present. Bus 142 Interpretive Advisory Team, University of Alaska Museum of the North.
- Peer Reviewer:
- Environmental History
- Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
- War in History
- Environment and History
- Energy Research and Social Science
- University of Alaska Press
- May, 2014- 2016. Senator, Brandeis Graduate Student Senate, Waltham, MA
- Chair, Senate Sustainability Committee
- Sept. 2015- 2016. Doctoral Mentor, Brandeis History Department Graduate Program
- 2015- 2016. Member, President’s Task Force on ¾þÃÈÈÊÓƵ Sustainability, Brandeis University
- Sept. 2014- May 2015. Member, Brandeis Fossil-Fuel Divestment Exploratory Committee.
