John McNeill was born and raised in Chicago and remains passionately devoted to the professional sports teams of the Windy City. He earned, or at any rate was awarded, a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from Duke University. Since 1985 he has cheerfully served two masters, as a faculty member of the School of Foreign Service and History Department at Georgetown. From 2003 until 2006 he held the Cinco Hermanos Chair in Environmental and International Affairs, until his appointment as University Professor. He teaches world history, environmental history, and international history at Georgetown; and writes books, and directs Ph.D. students, mainly in environmental history. He has served as president of both the American Society for Environmental History (2011-13) and the American Historical Association (2019), and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Academia Europaea.
John McNeill Presented his Work at the Universität Bielefeld’s Society – Knowledge – Environment Colloquium
June 28th, 2022
John McNeill presented his work on the Global Environmental History of the Industrial Revolution, at the Society – Knowledge – Environment Colloquium (Gesellschaft – Wissen – Umwelt Kolloquium), hosted online by Universität Bielefeld.…
Sea and Land: An Environmental History of the Caribbean
May 13th, 2022
This book, co-authored by John McNeill, Philip J. Morgan, Matthew Mulcahy, and Stuart B. Schwartz, delves into the environment and ecology of the Caribbean, exploring issues concerning natural resources, conservation, epidemiology, and climate.…
AHR Interview: Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai in Conversation with John McNeill on the Plague Concept
January 1st, 2021
Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai join this conversation with John McNeill. They discuss their article “The Justinianic Plague and Global Pandemics: The Making of the Plague Concept,” which appeared in the AHR.…
AHR Interview: Monica H. Green in Conversation with John McNeill on The Four Black Deaths
December 16th, 2020
In this episode John McNeill speaks with Monica H. Green, a historian of medicine and global health, about her article, “The Four Black Deaths,” which appeared in the AHR. In it, Green suggests both a broader and more nuanced understanding of how plague spread in the late medieval world.…
Infectious Historians Podcast, Episode #39: Environmental History: Past, Present, and Future with John McNeill
December 6th, 2020
John McNeill speaks with Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai about the changes to environmental and disease history over the last half century.…
John McNeill Was a Guest Speaker at MIT’s “Plants and Plagues” Session
November 13th, 2020
John McNeill was a guest speaker at the MIT’s “Plants and Plagues” session, which was part of the History of Now: Plagues and Pandemic free webinar course. This course focused on the history of infectious disease, looking transnationally and across disciplines at how plagues and pandemics have made an impact on human and non-human history.…
“Bats, Battiness, and the COVID-19 Pandemic”
October 13th, 2020
John McNeill reflects on the ways that have made the pandemic an environmental history event.…
Georgetown Now: A Conversation with Georgetown President John J. DeGioia featuring John McNeill
October 2nd, 2020
Conversation between Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and John McNeill.…
“Peak Document and the Future of History”
February 3rd, 2020
“Peak Document and the Future of History” was John McNeill’s 2019 presidential address at the AHA annual meeting. In his address, McNeill talked about the use of historical sources that do not come in the written form, but from the natural sciences and archaeology.…
“Peak Document and the Future of History”, John McNeill Delivered His Presidential Address at the American Historical Association
January 4th, 2020
In his role as President of the American Historical Association, John McNeill delivered his 2019 presidential address at the AHA annual meeting, which took place on Saturday, January 4, 2020 in the New York Hilton.…
“Health and Disease History of the Caribbean, 1491-1850: Two Syndemics”, John McNeill’s 2019 Sir John Elliott Lecture in Atlantic History
May 21st, 2019
On May 21, 2019, John McNeill delivered the 2019 Sir John Elliott Lecture in Atlantic History, titled “Health and Disease History of the Caribbean, 1491-1850: Two Syndemics”, at Oxford University’s Rothermere American Institute.…
Natascha de Vasconcellos Otoya Interviewed Professor John McNeill
November 29th, 2017
Natascha De Vasconcellos Otoya, History PhD student and one of our 2021-2022 Research Fellowships recipients, interviewed Professor John McNeill about his work on global environmental history, the trajectory of the field, and the practical challenges of writing history on a global scale.…
