Jesse Ritner is a Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Texas, Austin. There he studies the relationship between climate, technology, and environmental justice. His dissertation, “Making Snow: Climate, Technology, and Environmental Justice in the U.S. Ski Industry, 1900-present,” uses the ski industry as a case study to understand the historical relationship between climate adaption, business, technology, culture, and climate (in)justice. In the process, they created thriving economies that relied on radicalized labor, who live under a cloud of environmental precarity. Jesse has been awarded twelve grants and fellowships for his research, equalling $75,000.
Jesse is a passionate public historian, committed to bringing the best historical research to people outside of the academy. He has written extensively for public audiences, including The Washington Post, Edge Effects, Technology Stories, Niche, and Not Even Past. Moreover, Jesse has been interviewed on multiple occasions for news articles and podcasts. In addition to working at The Civil Conservation Project, Jesse has contributed to The Handbook of Texas Women, The Public Archive, and he offers historical assistance to diversity, equity, and inclusion projects for the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Austin.