Kieko Matteson
Associate Professor
Environmental History, France, Europe
Office: Sakamaki A412 (Study Abroad—Paris, Fall ’23; On Leave, Spring ’24)
Phone: (808) 956-6757
Email: kieko.matteson@hawaii.edu
A.B. Smith College, 1990; MA, PhD Yale University, 1995, 2008
Background
Born and raised in Vermont and with family ties in Hawaiʻi, Kieko Matteson developed an early interest in environmental history while hiking and birding in New England and the U.S. West. Later stints in France and Finland led her to explore the history of natural resource conservation and land use in Europe. Her book, Forests in Revolutionary France: Conservation, Community, and Conflict 1669-1848 has been published in the Cambridge University Press Studies in Environment and History Series. Prior to joining the History Department, Dr. Matteson served as the Executive Director of the World History Association. She has also served as editor of the American Society for Environmental History and U.S. National Park Service’s “Special History of World War II Activities in Pacific Island Park Units.” During spring and summer 2013, Matteson was a Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany.
Courses Offered
U.S. Environmental History, World Environmental History, Modern France, Modern Europe, French Revolution, Historiography and Methods, Senior Tutorial in History
Writings
- “Document Preservation: The Environmental Center Project.” From the UHM Water Resources Research Center’s News & Announcements, 14 October 2020.
- Forests in Revolutionary France: Conservation, Community, and Conflict 1669-1848 (Cambridge University Press, Studies in Environment and History Series) April 2015.
- “The Revival of Tradition in France’s Forests.” Solutions, Vol. 3, February 2013.
- “Nice Weather (If You’re a Newt): Chaos and Resilience in Natural Ecosystems.” Essay for Seeing the Woods: A Blog by the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, 19 June 2013.
- “Habeas Porpoise: Florida’s Double Standard on Violent Offenders.” Counterpunch, 8 March 2010.
- “‘Bad citizens’ with ‘murderous teeth’: Goats into Frenchmen, 1789-1827.” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, Carol E. Harrison and Kathryn A. Edwards, eds., Vol. 34, 2006. Winner of the Gargan Prize, 2006.
- “Trash,” Gendai Amerika no Kiiwaado [Keywords of Contemporary America], Mari Yoshihara and Yujin Yaguchi, eds. Chuo-koron-shinsha, 2006.
- “Review of Shawn William Miller, An Environmental History of Latin America.” Pacific Circle Bulletin, October 2011.
- “The Case for World Environmental History: Review of K. Sivaramakrishnan’s Modern Forests: Statemaking and Environmental Change in Colonial Eastern India.” Pacific Circle Bulletin, January 2003.
Interviews
“Prof. Dr. Kieko Matteson on ‘Conservation, Community and Conflict in Revolutionary France’”
Links
Arcadia: Online Explorations in Global Environmental History
UH Mānoa Trees and Plants
Eat the Invaders