Christopher Morris lives in Dallas, Texas, and is Professor of History at the University of Texas, Arlington. He is the author of two books, Becoming Southern: The Evolution of a Way of Life, Warren County and Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1770-1860, and The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples from Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina. In addition, he has authored more than twenty articles, essays, and book chapters, and co-edited three essay collections, on subjects ranging from slavery in the sugarcane fields of Louisiana to climate change as revealed in the cartographic history of the Great Lakes. He is best known for his work on slavery and on the relationship between people and the natural environment in the American South. Morris holds a doctorate from the University of Florida. He has received several awards, including a Pulitzer nomination and a senior fellowship at the Stanford Humanities Center.
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Chris Morris leading a group of students down the Trinity River.
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A photo of the Dallas Audobon Center, taken by Chris Morris.
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Chris Morris and Stacy Alaimo participating in a conversation about environmental humanities.
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Chris Morris paddling down the Trinity River with a group of students.
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A black and white photo of the French River in Ontario, Canada.
Current Highlights
"The Environmental Humanities: Side Dish or Main Course? A Dinner Conversation" In this video re-enactment of a true event, several historians and literary scholars gather around the dinner table to enjoy a meal and to discuss the disciplinary and philosophical perspectives of environmental history...
"Chemistry, Capitalism, and the Commodification of Nitrogen," Morris, C. (Author & Presenter), 2023 Research Conference at Centenary College, Shreveport, Louisiana. (April 20, 2023)
The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples from Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012; The first long-term environmental history of the Mississippi, this book spans five centuries to discuss the interaction between people and the landscape, from early hunter-gatherer bands to present-day industrial and post-industrial society.
Becoming Southern: The Evolution of a Way of Life, Vicksburg and Warren County, Mississippi 1770-1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995; This study challenges the old notion of an economic and culturally static South that stood in contrast to a dynamic North and argues that the South became different from the North.
"The Rise and Fall of Uncle Sam Plantation,” Charting the Plantation Landscape: Natchez to New Orleans, ed. Laura Kilcer VanHuss (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2021), 191-222.
“The Day Davis Cup Came to Dallas.” (2015), This video is a documentary about the integration of Dallas City Parks and the Davis Cup tennis match between the U.S. and Mexico, played in a newly-integrated Dallas park and featuring a young Arthur Ashe on the nation’s first integrated Davis Cup team.