Clarence Jefferson Hall Jr., Ph.D.
Clarence Jefferson (Jeff) Hall Jr. is an Associate Professor in the Department of History. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in History from Binghamton University (2001, 2003) and a Ph.D. in History from Stony Brook University (2014).
Prior to joining the faculty at Queensborough, Hall taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in History, Writing, and Journalism at Binghamton University, Stony Brook University, and New Jersey Institute of Technology. At Queensborough, he teaches both halves of the U.S. History survey course (HIST 127 and 128), Recent American Civilization (HIST 239), History of New York State (HIST 135), and Environmental History of North America (HIST 240).
Hall's research focuses on the intersectional histories of environment, race, and incarceration in the U.S. His first book, A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in New York's North Country, was published in 2020 by the University of Massachusetts Press Series on the Environmental History of the Northeast. His work has also been published in The Encyclopedia of American Environmental History, Adirondack Peeks, New York Archives Magazine, Process (published by the Organization of American Historians), Edge Effects (published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison), Environment and History, The History Teacher, and New York History. He has also presented his research in a variety of forums, including conferences hosted by the Organization of American Historians, American Society for Environmental History, and New York Historical Association, as well as invited lectures and colloquia across New York State and beyond. Hall's work has also been featured in a variety of news media outlets, including The New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, and elsewhere.
Publications:
Books
A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in New York’s North Country. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2020.
Essays
“Prison labor: The case for thanking Adirondack inmates.” Adirondack Explorer. January / February 2022. 40-41.
“Prisons for Sale, Histories Not Included.” Edge Effects. Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Center for Culture, History, and Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison. October 2018.
“Toward an Environmental History of American Prisons.” Organization of American Historians. Process. June 2017.
“Up the River and To the Woods.” New York Archives Magazine. Vol. 15, No. 3. Winter 2016.
“Reexamining the North Country Prison Industry after Matt and Sweat.” Under Currents: News From the Grassroots. Vol. 2, No. 4. October/November 2015.
“K-9 Units and the History of Adirondack Prison Escapes.” Adirondack Peeks. Fall 2015.
Encyclopedia Entries
“Private Housing,” in Kathleen Brosnan, ed., Encyclopedia of American Environmental History, 4 vols. New York: Facts on File, 2010.
Reviews
Jonathan D. Anzalone, Battles of the North Country: Wilderness Politics and Recreational Development in the Adirondack State Park, 1920-1980. Boston and Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018. New York History. Vol. 102, No. 2. Winter 2021-2022. 406-408.
Kimberly Jarvis, From the Mountains to the Sea: Protecting Nature in Postwar New Hampshire. Boston and Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2020. H-Net Reviews, July 2021.
Anne E. Parsons, From Asylum to Prison: Deinstitutionalization and the Rise of Mass Incarceration after 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. The History Teacher. Vol. 52, No. 3. May 2019. 532-533.
Connie Y. Chiang, Nature Behind Barbed Wire: An Environmental History of the Japanese American Incarceration. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Environment and History. Vol. 25, No. 3. August 2019. 482-484.
