Joseph Nereo Giacomelli

My research examines how environmental and scientific knowledge is created, contested, and sometimes transformed into actions that shape people's lives. I am especially interested in climate history, environmental history, and the history of science. My book, Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America (University of Chicago Press, 2023), focuses on the political and cultural dimensions of late nineteenth-century climate change theories. In the book, I argue that contentious debates about human-induced climatic changes shaped not just environmental and scientific thought, but also broader political struggles over the future of expansionism and capitalism.

I teach courses in History, Global Cultural Studies, Sociology, and other topics. Prior to joining DKU, I was a lecturer in the Writing Program at NYU Shanghai.