Between Two Oaks: Do Trees Have Agency? with Dr. Jason Newton

Tonight's Special Guest: Dr. Jason Newton

Discussion Topic: Have trees changed the course of history? How do historians give forests and trees agency in the stories they tell about the past? Dr. Newton will provide a brief introduction to the field of “environmental history” and explain how some historians center non-human nature in the narratives they construct.

Bio: Dr. Jason Newton is a historian and educator whose work focuses on the intersections of capitalism, labor, and environmental history in the United States. He currently serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of History at UNC Charlotte, where he teaches courses on capitalism studies, labor history, technology, and the environment. Newton is the author of Cutover Capitalism: The Industrialization of the Northern Forest, 1850–1950, a book that examines how industrialization transformed both workers and natural landscapes in the American Northeast and was a finalist for the 2025 George Perkins Marsh Prize in environmental history. His research often explores how labor, ecology, class, and ideas of masculinity shaped industrial society in rural America. Through his scholarship and teaching, Newton combines environmental history with social and economic analysis to better understand the development of modern capitalism.