CEWS Profile: Craig E. Colten

Craig Colten teaches in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University.  He received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1984 and has published numerous articles and books on the geography and environmental history of Louisiana.  Colten’s award-winning book, An Unnatural Metropolis:  Wresting New Orleans from Nature presciently anticipated the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans by calling attention to the environmental hazards associated with the city’s “unnatural” setting in the lower Mississippi River delta. A frequent commentator on public television and National Public Radio after Hurricane Katrina, Professor Colten has emerged as one of America’s foremost authorities on the environmental and social burdens that New Orleans daily confronts in its efforts to manage the hazards of water.  Colten is the incoming editor of the Geographical Review and past editor of Historical Geography.  Before joining academia, he spent a decade with the Illinois State Museum and two years with a Washington-based
environmental consulting firm. During his stint with government and in
the private sector he supervised research on the historical geography of
hazardous wastes.