History, Philosophy & Political Science Faculty & Staff

Chair of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Political Science. Research interests include the cultural history of late imperial and early Soviet Russia, as well as scholarship of teaching and learning.

Dr. Timothy S. Forest is currently an associate professor in Modern European History at the University of Cincinnati – Blue Ash.  His research interests lie in settler colonialism, state-directed colonization, frontiers, and issues of race, gender and identity in the British and French empires in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  

I am an environmental and urban historian whose work focuses on the intersections of social and environmental issues in the American city, especially when it comes to racial and class inequalities. I also have a significant interest in the origins and development of environmental activism, both in the United States and around the globe, and how environmental politics has both created and reinforced other inequalities and hierarchies. 

My teaching is focused on American and environmental history. In the classroom I work to help students understand how historical thinking is a vital tool for understanding their contemporary world. My environmental history classes in particular are focused on experiential learning, and encouraging students to get involved in the greater Cincinnati community through research, volunteering and service learning. Courses I have taught include American History, Global Environmental History, Race and the Environment, and Environmental Activism. I am also firmly committed to international education, and have taught through the University Study Abroad Consortium in Chengdu, China. 

Finally, I am also the director of the UCBA Honors Program, and work to provide a tremendous experience for all of our honors students. 

Books
 
Environmental Activism and the Urban Crisis: Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, May 2014. Paperback July 2015. 
 
Refereed Articles and Book Chapters  
 
“Pruitt-Igoe in the Suburbs: Connecting White Flight, Sprawl and Climate Change in Metropolitan America” for “Bounded Democracy,” special issue of American Studies/Amerikastudien, edited by Bryant Simon and Anke Ortlepp. December 2020. 
 
“Don’t Do it in the Lake: Gordon Sherman and the Public Interest in Postwar Chicago,” for City of Lake and Prairie: Chicago’s Environmental History, William Barnett, Kathleen Brosnan and Ann Durkin Keating, eds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.

“Environmental and Conservation Movements in Urban America,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia in American History, edited by Jon Butler. Oxford University Press. Published online October 2018.
 
“Not Quite Suburban: Progressive Politics in Postwar Chicago” in Social Justice in Diverse Suburbs: History, Politics, and Prospects, edited by Christopher Niedt. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013.
 
 “We Must Destroy You to Save You: Highway Construction and the City as a Modern Commons,” Radical History Review, Issue 109, Theme: “Enclosure,” Winter 2011.
 
“How can any community be expected to accept such a scar?: The Movement Against Destruction and Environmental Activism in Postwar Baltimore,” in Common Ground: Integrating the Social and Environmental in History, edited by Genevieve Massard-Guilbaud and Stephen Mosley. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011.
 
“Get the Lead Out: Environmental Politics in 1970s St. Louis,” Journal of Urban History, 36 (4), May 2010.
  
Public History Projects
 
Over-the-Rhine Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, Board Member 2015-present; Chair 2019-present. http://otrmuseum.org/
 
Rethinking Porkopolis: Cincinnati and the Ecology of Slavery museum exhibition and speaker series in partnership with the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati, OH. September to December 2016. Project director, chief historian and curato

My research has focused mainly on the History of American foreign relations, especially the Cold War. I also have a significant interest in labor history. I teach the Cold War, World War II, the Vietnam War, the diplomatic history survey, and World History. I was awarded a senior research visiting fellowship to the Nobel Peace Institute in Oslo, Norway, in 2016. I've held various local, state, and national positions with the American Association of University Professors. Currently, I am chair of the national AAUP's government relations committee.

I am a philosopher specializing in ethics, social and political philosophy, and feminist philosophy. My published work and conference presentations have focused on Kantian ethics, the role of care in moral theory, and moral responsibility in the context of systemic problems. 

                 My main fields of specialization are Comparative Politics and International Relations. My main research interests, publications (book, articles, etc.) and presentations deal with nationalism, elections and civic culture, especially in Romania, Moldova, Italy and Austria, and also recent U.S. elections. I am teaching Introduction to American Politics during the falls and springs, one section of Introduction to International Relations in the falls, and one section of Introduction to Comparative Politics during the springs.