Photo of Professor Chris Pearson

Professor Chris Pearson BA (Hons) MA PhD

History

About

Personal Statement

After working at the University of Bristol and the University of Warwick, I joined the University of Liverpool in September 2012. My research interests lie predominantly in animal, environmental and cultural history. They initially focused on modern French history and the environmental history of war, and have since branched out into animal history, the history of emotions, the history of medicine, urban history, and transnational history. My doctoral research and subsequent monograph form the first environmental history of Vichy France and outline the material and cultural importance of nature during the ‘dark years’ and their aftermath. This led to postdoctoral work on French and transnational militarized landscapes and my second book on the environmental history of war and militarization in France from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. My most recent book Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London, and Paris was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2021, and explores the role and presence of dogs as workers, pets, pests, and beyond in nineteenth and twentieth century London, New York, and Paris. It is being translated into Chinese, Italian, and Spanish I also explore (every now and then!) human-canine history on my blog Sniffing the Past and have co-produced a free smart phone app that allows users to explore the human-canine histories of these cities. You can download it from the University of Liverpool appstore . In 2024 I will publish my first trade book on the history of dogs with Profile Books.

I am now working on two Wellcome-funded projects. The first is as Co-Investigator leading the History Work Package on an interdisciplinary project researching street dogs in India (funded by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award),which you can find out more about on the ROH-Indies website. The second is as Principal Investigator on Melting Metropolis: Everyday Histories of Heat and Health in London, New York, and Paris since 1945 (funded by a Wellcome Discovery Award), which runs from 2023-2029, working with colleagues at Liverpool and Queens College, CUNY, as well as Research Artist Bryony Benge-Abbott.

I was also Co-Investigator on the Wellcome Trust-funded network MedEnv: Intersections in Medical and Environmental Humanities

ORCID: 0000-0002-0556-1929