Jones’s dissertation, “A More Exotic Game Animal: Wild Boar Hunting and the Rise of Feral Hogs in the American South,” is shaping up to be an important intervention in southern environmental history. Jones’s research takes the wild hog, considered today both an ecological scourge and a prized hunting trophy, and historicizes its long and complicated history in southern woods and farms. He begins with a basic question: how did wild pigs become vilified?

Jones has uncovered a fascinating history that argues that rural southerners, especially hunters, lobbied for the introduction of the animals to the wilderness areas of the region so that these outdoorsmen had another animal to kill. State wildlife officials were happy to oblige, seeding families of swine on various public and private lands across North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and other states. Then, as the pig population exploded, these sportsmen loudly called for their extermination. At hunters’ sides were experts from state extension services, land grant college researchers, and state wildlife officials. This dissertation reveals the ways that calling something “invasive,” even when it had been introduced by the very agency that labels it in that way, can put in motion policy changes with far-reaching consequences.

The resulting dissertation should change the way historians think about southern environmental history in three important ways. First, Jones reframes “invasiveness” by highlighting the roles of non-scientists and wildlife experts in creating that label. Second, the work will highlight farmers’—and by extension southern rural people’s—agency when it comes to environmental policymaking. Finally, his dissertation will provide new examples of the unpredictability of both animal introductions and game laws. Prof. Jim Giesen, Charlie’s dissertation adviser, say this about his dissertation: “this work offers a refreshingly clear take on southern environmental history that is sure to influence future scholarship.”

Charlie has presented his research at major international, national, and regional conferences. The Journal of Mississippi is slated to publish portions of his peer-reviewed research in a forthcoming issue. Charlie’s research credentials translate into his dedicated service to the Department of History. He is indeed a prominent and dependable department citizen. He has served as the instructor of record in myriad upper-division undergraduate courses and as a teaching assistant in United States history survey courses. In these roles, Charlie developed and taught course curriculum. He also has served as a graduate editorial assistant for Environmental History—the flagship journal of his field