Paul Hirt, PhD

Professor of History
Arizona State University

Paul Hirt is a historian specializing in the American West, environmental history, environmental policy, and sustainability studies.  Professor Hirt has authored more than two-dozen articles and book chapters on environmental and western history and policy. His current research projects include collaborative interdisciplinary research on energy transitions, water use and conservation, urban growth and sustainability in southern Arizona, and adaptive management in the Colorado River Basin.

Professor Hirt is involved in many public engagement programs focused on the above topics, including the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street traveling exhibit Water/Ways, an administrative history of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program funded by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, renewable energy development for the Navajo Nation, and various water, energy, and sustainability initiatives of the Global Institute of Sustainability and ASU's Global Drylands Center. For an example of a completed public history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, see http://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/