Expertise:
Camping History, Recreational Environments, National Parks, Urban Environments, Nature Parks, Protected Areas, Regeneration and Sustainability, Historical Geography, Environmental Geography, Tourism, Recreation, Landscape PreservationTerence Young’s research and publications focus on the history, meaning, design and enjoyment of recreational environments. With an emphasis on the United States, Young is interested in how public greenspaces at all scales (e.g. city parks, state forests and wilderness areas), theme parks, and urban gardens are perceived, why they are valued and what their futures may hold. He is especially interested in sustainability, regeneration and tourism as they relate to recreational environments. His current research interests include camping in the U.S., the early history of America’s national parks, international cooperation by the U.S. National Park Service, and the role of essentialist ideologies in American urban greenspaces.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
- U.S. National Park Service, Park History Program, $4600.00 to date (continuing), 2008 to present
- American Association of Geographers, “U.S. National Park Service Cooperation with Canada and in Africa,” $1,000.00, 2013-2014
Selected Publications:
- Heading Out: A History of American Camping (Cornell University Press, 2017)
- Co-Editor with R. Riley, Theme Park Landscapes: Antecedents and Variations (Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium Series in the History of Landscape Architecture) (Dumbarton Oaks Library and Collection, 2006)
- Building San Francisco’s Parks: 1850-1930 (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) David Kipen’s review in the San Francisco Chronicle.
- “Frederick Law Olmsted’s Abandoned San Francisco Park Plan” in The American Environment Revisited: Environmental Historical Geographies of the U.S. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), pp. 145-160
- “E.P. Meinecke and the Development of the Modern Auto Campground” IdeAs – Idées d’Amériques 12(Automne/Hiver 2018): https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/3502
- “Murray’s Rush: The Adirondack Beginning of American Camping” New York Archives Magazine 18(1): 11-17, 2018
- “Why Americans Invented the RV” Zocalo Public Square September 4, 2018: http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2018/09/04/americans-invented-rv/ideas/essay/
- “The Religious Roots of America’s Love for Camping” Zocalo Public Square October 12, 2017: http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/10/12/religious-roots-americas-love-camping/ideas/essay/
- “The End of Camping: Coming Home to the City” BOOM: A Journal of California 4(3): 70-75, 2014
- “‘Green and Shady Camps’: E.P. Meinecke and the Restoration of America’s Public Campgrounds” The George Wright Forum 31(1): 69-76, 2014
- With co-authored with Lary Dilsaver, “Collecting and Diffusing ‘the World’s Best Thought’: International Cooperation by the National Park Service” The George Wright Forum 28(3): 269-278 2011
- “Urban Parks, Leisure and the Good Society,” in Loisir et Liberte en Amerique du Nord (P. Lagayette, ed., Universite Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV), 59-71, 2008
- With Lary Dilsaver, “U.S. Parks and Protected Areas: Origins, Meanings and Management” Historical Geography 35:5-9, 2007
Interviews:
- “The Parks of San Francisco: What’s in Store for our Urban Oases,” City Visions Radio, KALW 91.7 FM (San Francisco), January 24, 2011
Education:
Ph.D, Geography, UCLA
Languages:
English