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D.C. Jackson, professor of history, was featured on C-SPAN recently discussing the implications of large-scale dam removal programs. He was part of a panel discussion on the subject at the annual meeting of the American Society for Environmental History in March which was recorded by C-SPAN.
Much of Jackson’s research and teaching focuses on the history of water resources, specifically dams, and their political, social, and environmental catalysts. His most recent book is Big Dams of the New Deal Era: A Confluence of Engineering and Politics (2006). It tells the story of how major water-storage structures were erected in four western river basins: the Colorado, Columbia, Missouri, and Sacramento-San Joaquin. He is also the author of Building the Ultimate Dam: John S. Eastwood and the Control of Water in the West (1995) and Great American Bridges and Dams (1988).
In 2007, as part of an 11 member scientific panel organized by the National Research Council, Jackson helped compile a report focusing on the dwindling water resources of the Colorado River Basin. Sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and state and local agencies, the study was presented to representatives of the Bureau, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the House Natural Resources Committee, the White House, and the Department of The Interior.
Jackson has appeared as an on-camera expert on the History Channel program Modern Marvels on dams andin an episode of the acclaimed five-part PBS miniseries Building Big.
A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1989, Jackson is the recipient of the Thomas and Lura Forrest Jones Lecture Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching, the Mary Louise Van Artsdalen Prize for outstanding scholarly achievement, and the Student Government Superior Teaching Award.