Drew Swanson

Biography

Drew Swanson is Associate Professor of History at Wright State, where he coordinates graduate studies, directs the public history concentration, and teaches classes in American, environmental, food, and 19th century history. Born in rural Virginia, he is a graduate of the University of Georgia and worked as a farmer, zookeeper, and natural resource manager before turning to academia

Research Interest

Swanson's research examines the intersections of nature and culture in the American South. He is the author of a number of journal articles and book chapters, as well as two books: A Golden Weed: Tobacco and Environment in the Piedmont South (Yale University Press, 2014) and Remaking Wormsloe Plantation: The Environmental History of a Lowcountry Landscape (University of Georgia Press, 2012). He has forthcoming essays on the idea of "ruins" in the coastal South and tobacco on film, and is currently working on two books: an environmental history of Appalachia, and a study of the agrarian roots of Reconstruction violence.