Frederick R. Davis

 Assistant Professor of History

Professor Davis teaches the history of science and medicine and environmental history. His research examines the history of environmental sciences with links to environmental history. He recently published his first book: The Man who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation (Oxford University Press, 2007). Through Archie Carr’s remarkable career (1937-87), Davis explored the important developments in biology and conservation including the rise of conservation biology as an independent discipline. WFSU recently did a story on the book.

He is currently working on his second book, Pesticides and Toxicology: Episodes in the Evolution of Environmental Health, based on his dissertation. This study reveals how the discipline of toxicology emerged in response to the development of chemical insecticides. Dr. Davis has published articles in the Florida Historical Quarterly and Endeavour and he contributed a chapter to Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida. He has also written numerous book reviews for such journals as Science, The Journal of the History of Biology, Environmental History, Isis, The Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, and the Quarterly Review of Biology. His research has been funded the National Science Foundation, the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Yale, and the Council on Research and Creativity at FSU.

Dr. Davis teaches a range of graduate and undergraduate courses on environmental history and the history of science and medicine. He received a University Graduate Teaching Award in 2006-07.

Teaching Schedule (2007-2008)

Fall 2007
History of the Life Sciences (Graduate Seminar)
North American Environmental History (Lecture Course
History of Environmental Activism (Senior Seminar)

Spring 2008
On Research Leave

Recent Courses:

Graduate:
Historiography and Science
History of the Life Sciences (1750 to the present)
North American Environmental History
Historical Methods

Combined Undergraduate and Graduate:
North American Environmental History
Florida Environmental History
Disease, Race, and Environment
History of Environmental Science and Environmentalism
History of Environmental Activism