Philip Wight

University of Alaska Fairbanks, 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, College 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. “Blue Eyed Arabs’ & the Silver Snake: Petrocultures of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System”, 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. “Energy Heartland: How the Mid-Continent Pipeline System Fueled and Fouled the Great Plains” 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 Shopping for Change: Consumer Activism and the Possibilities of Purchasing Power. 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. “Bolt to Alaska! Energetic Lessons from a 4,300-mile Electric Road Trip”, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). December. Quoted in Electrek and Reporting from Alaska.
• 2017. “How the Alaska Pipeline Is Fueling the Push to Drill in the Arctic Refuge”, Yale Environment 360. 16th November. Quoted in The Seattle Times, November 24th and the Anchorage Daily News, November 26th.
• 2017. “Hope Beyond Progress”, part of mini-series “Hope and Environmental History”, Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). 7 June.
• 2017. “Down the Line: Exploring the Environmental History of Pipelines”, 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. “Has Civil Disobedience Become Too Predicable?” 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: “War and Energy: Mobilizing the Arctic Environment, 1938-1968”. 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: “Nature, Knowledge, and Infrastructures of Colonialism in Alaska”, TEK Talks: Working with Indigenous Peoples, UAF, March 1st.
• 2021. Panelist: “Northern Animals and Borders Virtual Workshop”, 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). University of Alaska Fairbanks. 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: “Native Life on Native Terms: Wilderness, Oil Development, and Indigenous Self-Determination in the Battle for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” 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. “Should We Blow Up the ‘Magic Bus’?” Anchorage Daily News. December 21st .
• 2021, “GVEA’s Biggest Energy Customers Want More Renewables”, Fairbanks Daily News Miner, November 7th .

• 2024. Kavitha George. “Coal loading equipment in Seward is set to be demolished, likely a permanent end to Alaska coal exports.” Alaska Public Media. March 5th.
• 2024. “Sue Perkins: Lost in Alaska.” Channel 5 UK. February, 23rd.
• 2024. Alaska Statehood Anniversary. KTVF 11 Fairbanks. January 3rd.
• 2023. Max Graham, “The Willow effect: Are even more Arctic oil projects on the way?” Grist, November 15th.
• 2023. Rebecca Leber, “The oil industry’s cynical gamble on Arctic drilling,” Vox, September 8th.
• 2023. Kavitha George, “Dunleavy says Alaska can boost fossil fuels and renewables. Clean energy advocates disagree.” Alaska Public Media, June 5th.
• 2023. Eric Paglia, “Alaska: Energy, Security, and political economy in the American Arctic”, Polar Geopolitics, May 21st.
• 2023. “Why Are Alaska Natives Supporting a US Oil Mega Project?” Al Jazeera, March 22nd.
• 2023. Zoya Teirstein & Jake Bittle, “The Dubious Economic Calculus Behind the Willow Project,” Grist, March 16th.
• 2023. Ben Hulac, “As Willow Project Decision Nears, Alaska Ponders Ties to Oil,” CQ Roll Call, February 15th.
• 2023. “Battle for Alaska’s Oil”, National Geographic. February 9th.
• 2023. “Fairbanks, Alaska: Cooperation Between the US and Soviet Union,” Alhurra. January 20th. 2022. Lois Parshley, “How Long Until Alaska’s Next Oil Disaster?”, The Atlantic, December 24th. 2022. Dan Bross, “Arctic Road Rally to demonstrate electric-vehicle potential in Alaska”, KUAC Morning News, August 12th.
• 2022. Victoria Peterson, “In Alaska, coal is dwindling as green energy is on the rise”, High Country News, July 13th. Reprinted as “Alaska’s largest coal plant closes, as green energy takes hold”, Popular Science, July 14th.
• 2022. Morgan Krakow, “Interior Alaska electric cooperative moves to shutter troubled coal plant and pursue construction of large wind farm,” Anchorage Daily News.
• 2022. Subject Matter Expert: “Alaska Pipeline” Documentary, American Built series. Fox Business.
• 2022. Andy McGlashen, “Critics Say Biden Must Do More To Keep Arctic Oil in the Ground”, Audubon Magazine, January 24th.
• 2021. David Hasemyer, “Raging Flood Waters Driven By Climate Change Threaten the Trans-Alaska Pipeline,” Inside Climate News, October 12th.
• 2021. “On This Day: The Sale of Alaska”, Times Radio, London, UK. March 30th.
• 2021. Andy McGlashen, “The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Faces Its Biggest Threat Yet This Week”, Audubon Magazine, January 4th.
• 2020. John Dougherty, “Pearl Harbor Day: Tragedy in Hawaii shaped Alaska’s place in history,” KTVF 11, December 7th.
• 2020. Victoria Petersen, “Why the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may not be drilled”, 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.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

• 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 Campus Sustainability, Brandeis University
• Sept. 2014- May 2015. Member, Brandeis Fossil-Fuel Divestment Exploratory Committee.