The John Muir Center

for Environmental Studies

University of the Pacific

Program Objectives

As California's most important historical personality, John Muir was a regional naturalist with global impact. His papers at the Holt-Atherton Library are among the University's most important resources for scholarly research. Recognizing the need both to encourage greater utilization of the Muir Papers by the scholarly community and to promote the study of California and its impact upon the global community, the John Muir Center for Environmental Studies was established in 1989 (originally as the John Muir Center for Regional Studies) with the following objectives:

• to foster a closer academic relationship between UOP and the larger community of scholars, students, and citizens interested in regional and environmental studies;
• to provide greater opportunities for research and publication by UOP faculty and students;
• to offer opportunities for out-of-classroom learning experiences;
• to promote multi-disciplinary curriculum development.

Program Activities

These objectives are implemented through a variety of activities sponsored and promoted by the John Muir Center, including:

• home office to the Environmental Studies major
• home office for the Jedediah Smith Society
• home office for the Conference of California Historical Societies
• a regular symposium with a thematic emphasis on some aspect of regional/environmental studies. The California History Institute, started at the University of the Pacific in 1954 by "Mr. California", Dr. Rockwell Hunt, and subsequently sponsored by the John Muir Center and its predecessors, has been enlarged and incorporated into this annual symposium;
• a special publications program that includes the John Muir Newsletter , a quarterly publication with articles, book reviews and news of interest to Muir scholars;
• a monograph series that began in 1993 with the publication of John Muir: Life and Work, by the University of New Mexico Press; a new volume based on the presentations made to the California History Institute in 1996, entitled John Muir in Historical Perspective was published in 1999;
• 1996 John Muir Conference Abstracts of Papers - by University of the Pacific
• John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures (2005) - publisher's press release and book jacket and table of contents about this book derived from papers presented at the 2001 John Muir Conference.
• 2006 Conference: John Muir in Global Perspective.
• periodic seminars and workshops to offer faculty, students and other scholars a forum for presenting Environmental research results, to discuss ways and methods of utilizing Environmental resources in ongoing classes, and to facilitate multi-disciplinary planning and programs;
• grant projects designed to raise special funds for faculty and student research, for a computerized database and bibliography for the John Muir Papers, for collection development, and for Environmental history projects such as the Bank of Stockton project to catalog and make computer-accessible a major collection of historical Environmental photographs;
• course offerings with a regional or environmental emphasis. Currently such courses are offered independently on a semester basis by a number of departments, including Biology, English, Geology/Geography, History, Political Science, Philosophy, Chemistry, Engineering, and Economics.
• The John Muir Center:
  1. facilitates the utilization, coordination, and marketing of existing courses having an environmental scope or emphasis;
  2. offers support services for faculty interested in adding an environmental component to ongoing courses;
  3. encourages the utilization of intercession, summer school, and vacation times for specialized offerings in an environmental context;
  4. assists faculty interested in team-teaching or pooling courses with an environmental emphasis in order to promote multi-disciplinary curricular development.

Staff

Director: William Swagerty, Ph.D., University of the Pacific
Editor: Sally M. Miller, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History, U.O.P.
Administrative Assistant: Marilyn Norton

For Further Information

For further information contact the staff at

The John Muir Center for Environmental Studies (official website)
University of the Pacific
3601 Pacific Avenue
Stockton, California 95211
Phone: (209) 946-2527
Fax: (209) 946-2578
E-mail: johnmuir@uop.edu

• John Muir Newsletter
• The John Muir Collections at University of the Pacific , Holt-Atherton Library , University of the Pacific (off-site link)
• John Muir Programs at University of the Pacific

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