FSU-Teach Faculty

 

Dr. Kristine Harper

 

Kristine Harper is an assistant professor of history in FSU’s History Department and a member of the FSU-Teach program. She received her AB in Mathematics from the University of California, Riverside, her M.S. in Meteorology and Oceanography from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, and her Ph.D. in History of Science from Oregon State University. A U.S. Navy meteorologist and oceanographer for 20 years, Professor Harper also has a B.S. in Secondary Education (Integrated Science) from Western Oregon University in Monmouth, where she also did graduate work in science education. In addition to teaching history of science at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, she has taught meteorological analysis and weather prediction at the Naval Postgraduate School, and meteorology, oceanography, earth sciences, and college physics at Western Oregon University, where many of her students were pre-service teachers. Dr. Harper is just completing a year as a National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellow and as a Fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah.

 

Teaching Interests

 

Dr. Harper teaches a wide variety of courses in the history of science and technology, which range from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the late 20th century. Within FSU-Teach, she will focus on providing students with historical and philosophical perspectives surrounding scientific practice and discovery, and how society and culture influence scientific conduct. She is interested in teaching her students how to weave these perspectives into their own science and mathematics instruction so they can drive home the point that science and mathematics are human endeavors that do not exist in isolation from the rest of life.

 

Research Interests

 

With a scientific background in the physical environmental sciences, Dr. Harper’s historical focus addresses related scientific communities and how government policies and patronage influence their research agendas.

 

Current Projects

 

Dr. Harper is writing a book on the use of weather control as a tool of the state in mid-20th century America. In the science-and-technology-can-fix-anything euphoria of the immediate post-World War II era, politicians and not a few scientists became convinced that the time to control nature was at hand. Most of these projects—even the massive irrigation projects in the semi-arid American West—were local. However, because the atmosphere knows no boundaries, weather control was very international, and carried serious political, military, diplomatic, legal, ethical, and societal implications. As the climate changes, the global population increases, and the availability of sufficient quantities of freshwater wanes, it is important to understand how the state attempted to use weather control in the past and may attempt to use it in the future.

She is also co-editing a book with Greg Good of West Virginia University on the history of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), the largest scientific undertaking in history. The IGY substantially influenced science education in the last half of 20th century America.

 

Selected Academic Publications

 

Weather by the Numbers: The Genesis of Modern Meteorology (MIT Press, 2008)

"Climate control: United States weather modification in the cold war and beyond." Endeavour 32/1 (2008): 20-26.

“Meteorology’s struggle for professional recognition in the USA (1900-1950).” Annals of Science 63/2 (2006): 179-199.

[with Ronald E. Doel, first author], “Prometheus Unleashed: Science as a Diplomatic Weapon in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration.” Osiris 21 (2006): 66-85.

 

Selected Books for Middle and High School Students

 

Weather and Climate: Decade by Decade (Twentieth Century Science series) (New York: Facts-on-File, Inc., 2007).

Environmental Disasters: Hurricane Andrew (New York: Facts-on-File, Inc., 2005).

Environmental Disasters: The Eruptions of Mount St. Helens (New York: Facts-on-File, Inc., 2005).