Personal information

Biography

Conevery Valencius (CON-a-very va-LEN-chus) writes and teaches about how environments shape human knowledge, and how human knowledge shapes our environments. She is currently working with journalist Anna Kuchment on a book about human-created earthquakes and the modern shale energy boom. She is trained as a historian of medicine and has written about the history of US western exploration, early American science, and connections between health and environments, as well as massive and little-known earthquakes along the Mississippi River in 1811-12.

Activities

Employment (1)

Boston College: Chestnut Hill, MA, US

Employment
Source: check_circle
Boston College

Education and qualifications (2)

Harvard University: Cambridge, MA, US

1992 to 1998-12 | PhD (History of Science)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Stanford University: Palo Alto, CA, US

1986 to 1989 | BA (History)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Professional activities (27)

Harvard University: Cambridge, US

Department Associate (History of Science)
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Bodies and Places Working Group: Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, US

2020 to present | Founder and participant
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Geological Society of America: Boulder, Colorado, US

2016 to present
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Association For The Advancement of Science: Washington D.C., District of Columbia, US

2013 to present | Fellow, 2022
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Ummeed Child Development Fund: Quincy, Massachusetts, US

2011 to present | President, Board of Directors
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Society for Environmental History: Tacoma, US

1998 to present
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Historical Association: Washington D.C., District of Columbia, US

1994 to present
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

History of Science Society: Notre Dame, US

1993 to present
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Association For The Advancement of Science: Washington D.C., District of Columbia, US

2022 to 2024 | Steering Committee member (Section L, History & Philosophy of Science)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts: Waltham, Massachusetts, US

2016 to 2024 | Troop coordinator (Troop 65472 (from 5th grade to high school graduation))
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Society for Environmental History: Tacoma, US

2017 to 2023 (Executive Committee and Local Arrangements Committee)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Association for the Advancement of Science: D.C., D.C., US

2022 | Fellow (Section L, History and Philosophy of Science)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

History of Science Society: Notre Dame, US

2018 to 2021 | Philip J. Pauly Book Award committee (member, then chair)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Boston Athenaeum: Boston, Massachusetts, US

2018 | Community Fellowship
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Boston Chinese Dance: Quincy, Massachusetts, US

2013 to 2018 | Member, Board of Directors
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Harvard University Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study: Cambridge, MA, US

2016 | Katherine Hampson Bellow Fellow
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

History of Science Society: Notre Dame, US

2013 to 2015 | Council member
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Massachusetts Historical Society: Boston, MA, US

2014 | Honorary Fellow
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

History of Science Society: Notre Dame, US

2012 | Margaret W. Rossiter Prize for the History of Women in Science
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Harvard University: Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

2011 | Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Derek Bell Center for Teaching and Learning)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Harvard University: Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

2006 | Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology: Cambridge, MA, US

2004 | Senior Fellow
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

American Society for Environmental History: Chicago, IL, US

2003 | George Perkins Marsh Prize
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Governor of Arkansas: Little Rock, Arkansas, US

2002 | Declared an official "Arkansas Traveler"
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Society of American Historians: New York, New York, US

1999 | Allan Nevins Prize
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Harvard University: Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

1999 | Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Arkansas Women's History Institute: Little Rock, Arkansas, US

1990 | Susie Pryor Essay Award
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Funding (8)

Shaky Ground: The Untold Story of the Greatest Earthquake Surge to Hit Modern America

2023-10-01 to 2024-12-31 | Grant
National Endowment for the Humanities (Washington D.C., US)
GRANT_NUMBER:

RZ-292491-23

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via DimensionsWizard

Neponset River History

2023-06 to 2024-08 | Grant
Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Bodies & Places grad/faculty working group

2022 to 2023 | Grant
University Council on Teaching, Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Injection Wells and Induced Seismicity in Historical Perspective

2021 to 2022 | Award
Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

What We Pump Underground

2019-06 to 2020-06 | Award
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University (MA, MA, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

grant to support communication workshops in 'Powering America' Core class

2019 to 2020 | Grant
Winston Center for Leadership & Ethics, Carroll School of Management, Boston College (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Frackquake America

2016-09 to 2017-07 | Salary award
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Cambridge, Massachusetts, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

The New Madrid Earthquake and the Transformation of 19th-Century Science and Culture

2008-01-01 to 2008-12-31 | Grant
National Endowment for the Humanities (n/a, US)
GRANT_NUMBER:

grant.FB-53918-08

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via DimensionsWizard

Works (37)

Wings (1927): Aviation, War, and Energy

American Energy Cinema
2023 | Book chapter
Contributors: Conevery Bolton Valencius
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

gallery text providing background in environmental history and energy history for several paintings

McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College
2023-10 | Other
Contributors: Conevery Bolton Valencius
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

John Winthrop’s Lecture on Earthquakes (1755) and ‘Pestilential Distempers’ Caused by Environmental Disruption

Harvard Library Bulletin
2021-07 | Interactive resource
Contributors: Conevery Bolton Valencius
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Reflections: Environmental history in the era of COVID-19

Environmental History
2020 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85106823694

Part of ISSN: 19308892 10845453
Contributors: Alagona, P.; Carruthers, J.; Chen, H.; Dagenais, M.; Dutra e Silva, S.; Fitzgerald, G.; Hou, S.; Jørgensen, D.; Leal, C.; McNeill, J. et al.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Environmental History in the Time of COVID: History from within the Whirlwind

Environmental History
2020-10 | Journal article
Contributors: Conevery Bolton Valencius
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Knowledge, uncertainty, and induced earthquakes in Arkansas

Environmental History
2019 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85068546115

Contributors: Bolton Valencius, C.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Forgetting and remembering the New Madrid earthquakes - Discussion

Earth Sciences History
2018 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85045253579

Contributors: Valencius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

If you smell something, say something: When the stink of cities made Americans sick

Distillations
2018-07 | Magazine article
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

How to Build Bridges: Career Stories that Connect the Humanities and the Sciences

Transdisciplinary Higher Education: A Theoretical Basis Revealed in Practice
2017 | Book chapter
EID:

2-s2.0-85033467987

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius
grade
Preferred source (of 2)‎

Science in Early America: Print Culture and the Sciences of Territoriality

2016 | Journal article
OTHER-ID:

85257EED0050399285257F680076C86F

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via MLA International Bibliography
grade
Preferred source (of 3)‎

Teaching Chekhov as Environmental History: Sakhalin Island and Cold Climates

Approaches to Teaching the Works of Anton Chekhov
2016 | Book chapter
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Roundtable Review of Paul Sutter, Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies: Providence Canyon and the Soils of the South

H-Environment listserv
2016-09 | Book review
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Reddit "Ask Me Anything" discussion on Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes

"Ask Historians" website
2015-08 | Interactive resource
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Stop Pretending: State has quakes; be prepared

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
2015-08-14 | Newspaper article
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Author response to Roundtable Review on Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes

H-Environment listserv
2015-03 | Book review
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

"Page 99 test" blog: author essay about Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes

"Page 99 test" blog
2014-10-07 | Interactive resource
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Roundtable Review of Mark Fiege, The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States

H-Environment listserv
2014-07 | Book review
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes

University of Chicago Press
2013 | Book
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Accounts of the New Madrid earthquakes: Personal narratives across two centuries of North American seismology

Science in Context
2012 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84856392867

Contributors: Valencius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Accounts of the New Madrid earthquakes: personal narratives and seismology over the last two centuri

Science in Context
2012-02 | Journal article
Contributors: Conevery Bolton Valencius
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Sacagawea's "cold": Pregnancy and the written record of the Lewis and Clark expedition

Bulletin of the History of Medicine
2008 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-47749115387

Contributors: Kastor, P.J.; Valenčius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Chekhov's Sakhalin Island as a Medical Geography

2007 | Book chapter
OTHER-ID:

B9B74512B4B3F9DA85257941006E6BAC

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius
grade
Preferred source (of 2)‎

"An Entangled Bank:" Teaching Darwin's On the Origin of Species

Environmental History
2005 | Journal article
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Gender and the Economy of Health on the Santa Fe Trail

Osiris, Vol. 19: Landscapes of Exposure: Knowledge and Illness in Modern Environments
2004 | Journal article
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Mudslides Make Good History

Journal of the Early Republic
2004 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-84904824700

EID:

2-s2.0-64949194775

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius
grade
Preferred source (of 3)‎

Americans and Their Environments at the Time of Lewis and Clark

Lewis & Clark: Journey to Another America
2003 | Book chapter
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Dirt and Dung, Enduringly: Review of Steven A. Stoll, Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America

Reviews in American History
2003 | Book review
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

“The Health of the Country:” How American Settlers Understood Themselves and Their Land

Basic Books
2002 | Book
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Histories of Medical Geography

Medical Geography in Historical Perspective
2001 | Book chapter
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

The Geography of Health and the Making of the American West: Arkansas and Missouri, 1800-1860

Medical Geography in Historical Perspective
2001 | Book chapter
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius

Chapter 1: Histories of Medical Geography

Medical History
2000 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85010105838

Contributors: Valenčius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Chapter 7: The Geography of Health and the Making of the American West: Arkansas and Missouri, 1800–1860

Medical History
2000 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-85010178290

Contributors: Valenčius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Histories of medical geography.

Medical history. Supplement
2000 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-0034571143

Contributors: Valencius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

The geography of health and the making of the American West: Arkansas and Missouri, 1800-1860.

Medical history. Supplement
2000 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-0034578510

Contributors: Valencius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

Health and society in early Arkansas, 1810-1860.

Research papers (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. History of Medicine Associates)
1999 | Journal article
EID:

2-s2.0-0033278677

Contributors: Valencius, C.B.
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius via Scopus - Elsevier

ISOTYPE and the Project of Universal Graphic Language

1998 | Book chapter
OTHER-ID:

7A88B02FEF14D351852566CE006B67EF

Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius
grade
Preferred source (of 2)‎

‘A Sister’s Consolations:’ Women, Health, and Community in Early Arkansas, 1810 – 1860

Arkansas Historical Quarterly
1991 | Journal article
Source: Self-asserted source
Conevery Bolton Valencius