The Author: Dr. Josh MacFadyen

I am a Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities and an Associate Professor in the Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture program at the University of Prince Edward Island, in Charlottetown, PEI. I am the director of the GeoREACH Lab which supports Geospatial Research in Atlantic Canadian History. Read more about my work at UPEI at my ACLC program page. For ongoing updates on the research I do at UPEI, see the website of the GeoREACH Lab.

Prior to coming to UPEI, I was Assistant Professor of Environmental Humanities in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies and the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. In 2014 I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Historical GIS Lab at the University of Saskatchewan, and from 2010-2014 I was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow and then NiCHE Project Coordinator at the University of Western Ontario.

Some of the projects I’ve been involved in include NiCHE: Network in Canadian History & Environment and the Sustainable Farm Systems (SFS) partnership. SFS is an interdisciplinary team of scholars who examine energy flows, soil nutrient balances, landscape ecology and other measures of sustainability in agro-ecosystems. More broadly, I am interested in the problems of modern agriculture and how Canadians did — and could — stay warm and fed in a world with much less fossil fuel.

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This photo was taken on mussel beds in the North River of Prince Edward Island. Farmers once dug up the shells and mud from these beds to treat the soil for acidity.
This photo was taken on mussel beds in the North River of Prince Edward Island. Farmers once dug up the shells and mud from these beds to treat the soil for acidity.