Office Hours

  • M 10:00 - 12:00; W 1:00 - 2:00

 

Interests

• Twentieth-Century United States
• Environmental History
• History of Technology
• Social Movements
• Politics of Food

 
Home › History Department › Jordan Kleiman

Jordan Kleiman

Associate Professor of

History

 302 Sturges Hall
1 College Circle
Geneseo, NY 14454
585-245-5743
kleiman@geneseo.edu

Kleiman

Jordan Kleiman has been a member of the Geneseo faculty since 2000. He is also the Co-Director of the Geneseo Food Project.

In addition to his normal academic duties, Professor Kleiman co-founded Rush Citizens Concerned about Hydrofracking, which has successfully pursued a one-year moratorium on shale gas development in the Town of Rush, NY.  He has also done numerous public presentations on fracking at the invitation of other towns and organizations and has recently taught a course entitled "Fracking 101:  The History, Politics, Science, & Technology of Unconventional Shale Gas Development." 

And when he's not working on his teaching, research, or fracking activities, you will likely find him spending time with his family, gardening, tending his chickens, or playing bass fiddle with other bluegrass and Old Time musicians in the Rochester Area.
Faculty Information

Education

  • University of Rochester, Ph.D. in History, 2000
  • University of Delaware, M.A. in History, 1991
  • George Washington University, B.A. in Philosophy, 1983

Research Interests

Research in Progress
Book: The Appropriate Technology Movement in American Political Culture, under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Articles:
  • “Greening ‘Fort Apache’: Appropriate Technology as Environmental Justice in the South Bronx.”
  • “The Gods Must Be Crazy: Space Colonization, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the Roots of the American Appropriate Technology Movement.”

Publications

  • "Local Food and the Problem of Public Authority," Technology & Culture 50, no. 2 (April 2009): 399-417.
  • "The Appropriate Technology Movement," in the Encyclopedia of American Social Movements, edited by Immanuel Ness (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004), 1317-22.
  • "Modernization," in A Companion to American Thought, edited by Richard Fox and James Kloppenberg (Oxford UK & Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1995), 462-64.
  • "Art and Social Change: The Aesthetic Theory of Theodor Adorno and John Dewey," Research & Society 6 (1993): 26-53.

    Awards, Grants & Fellowships

    • National Science Foundation: Scholars Award, 2008-09
    • Presidential Summer Fellowship, SUNY-Geneseo, 2005
    • Goff Fellowship, Newell D. Goff Institute of the Rhode Island Historical Society, 2003
    • Dissertation Fellowship in the Humanities, University of Rochester, 1998
    • Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, 1997
    • National Science Foundation: Doctoral Dissertation Grant, Ethics and Values Studies, 1996
    • Rush Rhees Fellowship, University of Rochester, 1995


    Courses Regularly Taught

    • American Studies 201: American Garden
    • History 391: The Politics of Food in Modern America (Senior Seminar)
    • History 369: Environmental Thought & Politics in Modern America
    • History 221: Technology & the Environment in Modern America
    • History 220: Food & Power in Modern America
    • History 220: Technology, Culture, & Politics in Modern America
    • History 204: Post-1945 U.S. History
    • History 155: Power & Politics in Modern America
    • History 151: U.S. History, 1865-Present


    Honors Theses Directed

    • Michelle Fevola, "The Dirty Truth: New York's Ineffective Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Policy" (2010)
    • Ben Wickizer, "Post-1970s Reform of the Bureau of Reclamation—Real or Superficial? A Case Study of the Klamath Reclamation Project" (2010)
    • Stephen Seefried, "Kick Ash!: A History of the Incinerator Ash Dump ‘NIMBYs’ in the Genesee Valley, 1987-1995" (2008)
    • Marc Hudson, “The Cuyahoga River Fire: The Making of an Environmental Icon” (2008)
    • Mathew Lapennas, “Contested Ground: Redefining Efficiency in the Debate between Industrial and Sustainable Agriculture Advocates” (2007)
    • Daniel Moran, “Neo-Agrarianism and the Dilemma of Human-Land Relations” (2007)
    • Katelyn Holloway, "'General Pollution': Government Business, the Media, and the Hudson River Environment" (2006)
    • Craig Truglia, “Progressivism and Social Control During World War I” (2005)
    • Timothy Nicholson, "Appropriate Technology in U.S. Foreign Policy" (2004)
My Classes

HIST 204:
S/U/United States Since 1945

    This course will examine the transformation of the United States since World War II, focusing on the Civil Rights struggle, the impact of the rights revolution, that emerged in the 1960's. The rise and fall of the Cold War as a force in American life, and the changing role of government in society.

HIST 221:
Research in History:

    Students will get an intensive introduction to the process of historical research and writing in a seminar setting. This course will acquaint students with research methods, train them to interpret primary sources and lead them through the conceptualization, research, drafting, and rewriting of an historical study. Prerequisites: 9 hours of college-level history credit, at least 3 hours of which must be at Geneseo; or junior standing. Multiple sections offered every fall & spring semester

HIST 369:
Envir Thought&Pol-Mod America

    This course traces the historical development of American environmental thought and politics from the late 19th century to the present. It will be particularly concerned with the clash between two distinct forms of environmental thought and action: one promoting the sustainable use of the natural environment and the other opposing human intervention into wilderness areas. The course will also explore the ways in which gender, race, class, religion, and globalization have intersected with environmental thought and politics. Prerequisites: HIST 220 and HIST 221 or permission of the instructor. Not offered on a regular basis