Jen Huntley
environmental historian, artist, educator, public speaker and author of The Making of Yosemite: James Mason Hutchings and the Origin of America’s Favorite National Park, has written widely for both academic and popular audiences.
Her artwork consists of multimedia illustrated sketchbook journals, recently on display in the solo show, “Open Book” at the Snapdragon Cafe on Vashon Island, WA
Her interests include: Nineteenth-century American environment and culture, indigenous and traditional landscape patterns, contemporary environmental sustainability, social justice, and the importance of history and humanities.
Publications include academic peer-reviewed articles on nineteenth-century environmental history of Yosemite and the history of print culture in the West; “East of Eden,” a weekly opinion column for the Reno News and Review alternative newsweekly; and the “Edible Traditions,” column for Edible Reno-Tahoe magazine. Her article on Pinyon pine indigenous traditions won her an “Eddy” award for best short. Her blog, “TianAnMenSix-Four+twenty” revisits eyewitness accounts of the Tian an Men Square occupation from her 1989 journals.
She has spoken at academic conferences and for local and regional organizations, including Yosemite National Park, California Historical Society, and the Mazamas mountaineering organization.
She moved to Vashon Island in 2017 and is currently working on her second book on Yosemite history, The Yosemite Paradox: How the Origins of Environmental Conservation Fed the Fires of Catastrophe.
An award-winning educator for over twenty-five years, Jen worked in settings as diverse as Taiwan, Greece, Portland OR, Lake Tahoe and Reno, NV. At the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College, Jen taught courses in history, environmental sustainability, and humanities. She designed and founded the University of Nevada Academy for the Environment: an interdisciplinary institute devoted to environmental research, education, and outreach. As UNAE Associate Director, Jen designed the cross-disciplinary environmental studies degree program at UNR and led community outreach initiatives in the Reno environmental nonprofit and local government sectors.
Jen was consulting historian for the California Historical Society’s 2014 exhibit: Yosemite: A Storied Landscape in San Francisco, CA. She also contributed expertise to the Reno, NV Discovery Museum, and for the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum. She has been on boards of environmental, educational, and museum nonprofits in Reno and Vashon Island, as well as been appointed commissioner for the Reno City Historical Resources Commission.
Jen received her PhD in History of the American West in 2000
Jen enjoys international travel, hiking, kayaking, gardening, and painting.
