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Dr Jessica Van Horssen
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Dr Jessica Van Horssen
Senior Lecturer
School of Cultural Studies & Humanities
???? J.Van-Horssen@leedsbeckett.ac.ukAbout Dr Jessica Van Horssen
Dr. Jessica van Horssen's scholarship focusses on the history of environmental health in North America and the wider world. Her work highlights the connections between modernity and toxicity in bodies of land, human bodies, and the body politic.
She has researched and published extensively on the North American asbestos industry within a local/global context. This work has brought her into the study of the culture of toxicity, and the different ways humans have attempted to make the world safer by introducing new materials to the environment.
Van Horssen sailed around the UK in 2017 as part of the eXXpedition Round Britain to test coastal waters for plastics contamination, and organised a time travel experience at Edinburgh Fringe to encourage the public to historicise current pollution levels. She has continued her research into persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and their introduction/impact on domestic spaces and bodies
Current Teaching
Select modules include:
- Migration and Cultural Encounters
- Atlantic Revolutions
- Digital History
- Civil Rights in North America
Research Interests
The way van Horssen looks at history is through a transnational lens, and in her research, she has shown that environmental contamination often transgresses artificial political boundaries. As an active historian, she is also committed to researching the past to make an impact on the present and future.
To this end, van Horssen has started a new research project that focusses on societal aspirations for the future, specifically within the postwar period. By examining the ways postwar society altered their environments to unknowingly embed persistent organic pollutants (POPs), her research directly addresses contemporary consumer practices and government legislation.
Selected Publications
Journal articles (4)
- Van Horssen J (2016), International agency over local land: Mine expansion and industrial priorities in the Town of Asbestos, Canada. Jahrbuch fur Wirtschaftsgeschichte, vol. 57 (1), p. 9-28.
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2016-0002
View Repository Record - Van Horssen J (2015), La mine qui commence à grignoter le village1 : Expansion minière territoriale à Asbestos. Revue d'Histoire de l'Amerique Francaise, vol. 68 (3-4), p. 325-352.
https://doi.org/10.7202/1033639ar
View Repository Record - Van Horssen J (2012), "À faire un peu de Poussière": Environmental health and the asbestos strike of 1949. Labour/ Le Travail(70), p. 101-132.
View Repository Record - Parr J; Van Horssen J; Van Der Veen J (2009), The practice of history shared across differences: Needs, technologies, and ways of knowing in the megaprojects new media project. Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 43 (1), p. 35-58.
https://doi.org/10.3138/jcs.43.1.35
View Repository Record
Books (1)
- Horssen JV (2016) A Town Called Asbestos Environmental Contamination, Health, and Resilience in a Resource Community. . UBC Press.
Chapters (2)
- Van Horssen JJ (2018) Locality and Contamination Along the Transnational Asbestos Commodity Chain. In: Van Horssen JJ Histories of Technology, the Environment, and Modern Britain. London: University College London Press, pp. .
- Van Horssen JJ (2017) Quebec Asbestos: Triumph and Collapse, 1879-1983. In: Van Horssen JJ Mining North America An Environmental History Since 1522. : Univ of California Press, pp. 369-397.
Other (1)
- Van Horssen J (2016), Summary and conclusion to the special issue. Urban History Review, vol. 44 (1-2), p. 56-57.
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