Christine Keiner Headshot

Christine Keiner

Department Chair

Dean’s Office
College of Liberal Arts
cmkgsh@rit.edu
585-475-4698
Office Mailing Address
RIT College of Liberal Arts 92 Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester NY 14623-5604

Christine Keiner

Department Chair

Dean’s Office
College of Liberal Arts

Education

BA, Western Maryland College; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Bio

B.A. Biology, McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College)
Ph.D. History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Johns Hopkins University

Winner of the 2019 Everett Mendelsohn Prize, Journal of the History of Biology for "A Two-Ocean Bouillabaisse: Science, Politics, and the Central American Sea-Level Canal Controversy"

Winner of the 2010 Forum for the History of Science in America Book Prize, co-winner of the Maryland Historical Trust Heritage Book Award, and Honorable Mention from the Frederick Jackson Turner Committee of the Organization of American Historians for The Oyster Question: Scientists, Watermen, and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay since 1880 

Research Interests: History of ecology and biology, U.S. environmental politics, relations between science and politics, marine environmental history, and the history of marine and aquatic invasive species, especially in the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Erie Canal and Panama Canal

Courses: Science, Technology, and Values; Introduction to Environmental Studies; Great Lakes; History of Ecology and Environmentalism; History of Women in Science and Engineering; Environmental Disasters; Gender, Science, and Technology; Social Consequences of Technology; Engineering in American Culture; Honors STS: The Panama Canal; Honors STS: Food and Power in U.S. History; Interdisciplinary Capstone Seminar in Science, Technology and the Environment

cmkgsh@rit.edu
585-475-4698
Personal Links
ORCID
Areas of Expertise
History of science and technology
US environmental history

Select Scholarship

Journal Paper
Keiner, Christine. "The Nuclear Sea-Level Canal Engineering Feasibility Field Studies and Epistemic Risk in the Darién, 1965–1970." Journal for the History of Knowledge 6. Special Issue on Knowledge and Power: Projecting the Modern World (2025): 209-232. Web.
Keiner, Christine. "Nature Carves a Choice Urban Site: Applying an Environmental Lens to Blake McKelvey’s Rochester: The Water-Power City, 1812-1854." Rochester History 83. 1 (2025): 61-77. Print.
Keiner, Christine. "The Maryland Oyster Aquaculture Transition: Balancing Economics, Ecology, and Equity." Southeastern Geographer 59. (2019): 40-51. Print.
Keiner, Christine. "A Two-Ocean Bouillabaisse: Science, Politics, and the Central American Sea-Level Canal Controversy." Journal of the History of Biology 50. 4 (2017): 835-887. Print.
Keiner, Christine and Ashley Carse, Pamela M. Henson, Marixa Lasso, Paul S. Sutter, Megan Raby and Blake Scott. "Panama Canal Forum: From the Conquest of Nature to the Construction of New Ecologies." Environmental History 21. (2016): 206-287. Print.
Invited Keynote/Presentation
Keiner, Christine. "State-of-the-Field Panel on US Environmental History." Annual Meeting. Organization of American Historians. Chicago, IL. 5 Apr. 2025. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "The Chesapeake: Prologue to the Anthropocene." Estuaries and the Anthropocene. Texas A&M University. Galveston, TX. 21 May 2021. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "Humboldt and the Unbuilt Central American Canal." North American Society for Oceanic History. North American Society for Oceanic History. Pensacola, FL. 8 Jul. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "Recovering Hidden Histories of Marine and Aquatic Invasion Biology." 26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology. ICHST. Prague, Czech Republic. 26 Jul. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "Joys and Challenges of Teaching STS to Career-Focused STEM Students." Society for the Social Studies of Science. Society for the Social Studies of Science. Toronto, Ontario. 9 Oct. 2021. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "The Joys and Challenges of Teaching and Researching STS at an Engineering School." Missouri S&T Center for Science, Technology, and Society Virtual Visiting Speaker Series. Missouri University of Science and Technology. Rolla, MO. 26 Feb. 2021. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "Deep Cut: Science, Power, and the Unbuilt Interoceanic Canal." Greenhouse Environmental Humanities Book Talks. University of Stavanger, Norway. Stavanger, Norway. 7 Jun. 2021. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "Deep Cut." History of Ocean Science, Technology and Medicine Working Group. Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Philadelphia, PA. 21 Jul. 2020. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "STRI and the Unbuilt Central American Sea-Level Canal." Virtual Science Talks. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Panama City, Panama. 4 Sep. 2020. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "Roundtable: Revisiting Neptune’s Garden: Science, Technology, and Environment in Oceanic History." North American Society for Oceanic History. North American Society for Oceanic History. New Bedford, Massachusetts. 17 May 2019. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "The Unbuilt Central American Sea-Level Canal and the Environmental History of Unrealized Megaprojects." American Society for Environmental History. American Society for Environmental History. Columbus, Ohio. 11 Apr. 2019. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "Domesticating the Maryland Oyster: From Regulated Commons to Aquaculture Enterprise Zones." Agricultural Historical Society. Agricultural Historical Society. Washington, DC. 7 Jun. 2019. Conference Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. "Marine Environmental History from the Chesapeake Bay to the Panama Canal." National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College and University Faculty: The American Maritime People. Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies, Mystic Seaport Museum. Mystic, Connecticut. 13 Jul. 2018. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "Invasive Species Research in the Great Lakes: A Brief and Selective History." Science and Technology Seminar. University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Rochester, New York. 13 Apr. 2018. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "Lake Ontario Levels and Plan 2014: Environmental Redemption or Disaster?" Lecture Series. RIT Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Rochester, New York. 27 Sep. 2018. Guest Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "Panelist." Greenland Under the Arctic Sky. RIT College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. Rochester, New York. 13 Sep. 2018. Lecture.
Keiner, Christine. "From Fallout to Sea Snakes: The Panatomic Canal Debate and Pre-NEPA Environmental Impact Assessment." Society for the History of Technology. SHOT. St. Louis, Missouri. 13 Oct. 2018. Conference Presentation.
Book Chapter
Keiner, Christine. "Environmental Science and Politics in the United States." The Routledge History of American Science. NY, NY: Routledge, 2023. 272-283. Print.
Published Review
Keiner, Christine. "The Cost of Scientific Patronage." Rev. of Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean, by Naomi Oreskes. Science 16 Apr. 2021: 245. Print.
Keiner, Christine. Rev. of Why Study Biology by the Sea?, eds. Karl S. Matlin, Jane Maienschein, and Rachel A. Ankeny. Social History of Medicine 2020: hkaa108. Web.
Keiner, Christine. Rev. of Pesticides, A Love Story, by Michelle Mart. Journal of American History 1 Jun. 2017: 261-262. Print.
Keiner, Christine. "Multiple Authored Invited Review." Rev. of The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail by W. Jeffrey Bolster, ed. Jacob Hamblin. H-Environment Roundtable Reviews 15 May 2014: 5-9. Web.
Keiner, Christine.Rev. of The Fishermen’s Frontier: People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska. David F. Arnold. Agricultural History, 84.4 (2010): 546-548. Print.
Full Length Book
Keiner, Christine. Deep Cut: Science, Power, and the Unbuilt Interoceanic Canal. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2020. Print.
National/International Competition Award Winner
Keiner, Christine. Journal of the History of Biology. 2019 Everett Mendelsohn Prize. Utrecht, Netherlands, 2019.
Journal Editor
Member, Editorial Board, ed. Journal of the History of Biology. Springer Netherlands: Springer, 2018. Print.
Published Book
Keiner, Christine. The Oyster Question: Scientists, Watermen, and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay since 1880. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.
Formal Presentation
Keiner, Christine. “Reconnecting Marylanders with their Oyster Heritage: A Century of Political Resistance to Privatizing the Oyster Beds of the Maryland Chesapeake Bay.” Ninth Maritime Heritage Conference. Baltimore, MD. 15-19 Sept. 2010. Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. “Building a Better Oyster: The Rise of the Pacific Northwest Marine Biotechnology Industrial-Academic Complex.” Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). Tacoma, WA. 30 Oct. - 3 Sept. 2010. Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. “The Sea-Level Panama Canal Debate as aCold War Forum for Emerging EnvironmentalConcerns.” Tri-University History Conference on Cold War Encounters. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. 16 Oct. 2010. Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. “The Sea-Level Panama Canal Debate and the Uneasy Integration of Ecological and Engineering Concerns in the Early Modern Environmental Era.” North American Society for Oceanic History. Mystic, CN. 12-16 May 2010. Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. “The Sea-Level Panama Canal Debate as aCold War Forum for Emerging Environmental Concerns.” Association of American Geographers. Washington, DC. 14-18 Apr. 2010. Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. “Scientists, Watermen, and Conflict in the Maryland Chesapeake Oyster Fishery,1880-2010.” University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory Faculty Seminar. Cambridge, MD.20 Oct. 2010. Presentation.
Keiner, Christine. Inaugural Presentation. Farming for the Future Seminar Series, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Baltimore, MD. 20 Sept. 2010. Presentation.

Currently Teaching

STSO-246
History of Women in Science and Engineering
3 Credits
Using biographical and social-historical approaches, this course examines the history of women's involvement in science and engineering since the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century; the historical roots of gender bias in the Western scientific enterprise; and the influx of women into science and engineering since the mid-to-late 20th century. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies.
STSO-326
History of Ecology and Environmentalism
3 Credits
This course explores the history of ecological science, from the eighteenth century to the present, and it features the political use of ecological ideas in environmental debates, from the 19th century to the present. We investigate how social and political ideas have influenced ecological science, how ecological concepts have influenced Western politics and society, and how different generations of ecological researchers have viewed their role in society.
STSO-422
Great Lakes
3 Credits
The Great Lakes ecosystem is a critically important freshwater resource, both locally and globally. This course examines the lakes and surrounding region as a case study for understanding global environmental issues. Using an interdisciplinary lens, students will assess the local, regional, national, and international scope of Great Lakes environmental issues, and analyze the roles of history, science, engineering, economics, public policy, and other relevant factors in shaping the past, present, and future of the lakes and human communities in the watershed.
WGST-246
History of Women in Science and Engineering
3 Credits
Using biographical and social-historical approaches, this course examines the history of women's involvement in science and engineering since the birth of modern science in the seventeenth century; the historical roots of gender bias in the Western scientific enterprise; and the influx of women into science and engineering since the mid-to-late 20th century. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies.

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