I’m a 24-year-old environmental history graduate based in London interested in the intersections between ecology, sociology, economics, and finance. I diagnose — I do not prescribe. I’m a keen hillwalker, train-travelling enthusiast, and allotmenteer.
Most recently I completed an MLitt in Environmental History at the University of St. Andrews, where my research focussed on the late early modern decline of white-tailed deer in southeastern North America. I specifically researched how changing economic incentive systems led to indigenous communities’ exploitation of deer, utilising LLMs to analyse the frequency of land transactions in archival records over time — and matching these results with corresponding archaeological finds.
My BA in History at UCL focussed on a similar period, but looked north and west to beaver and bison decline in Hudson Bay and the Great Plains respectively. My dissertation on these matters was based on a novel theoretical framework that emphasised spatiotemporal relationship changes over time, tapping into a wide range of primary evidence — qualitative written records and quantitative trading records — to do this. I was placed on the Faculty’s Dean’s List in recognition of my academic achievements and for the originality of my research.
While the jump from this avowedly abstract historical work to contemporary climatic and ecological challenges seems far, the long durée historical angles I hope to foster can inform how the solutions we use to solve today’s problems may exacerbate tomorrow’s — and how systemic change that would prevent this can be achieved. By zooming out, I hope to expose the limits of our current approaches.
Feedback or comments of any kind are more than welcome — pop me an email at tedtheisinger@substack.com
Find me on LinkedIn at in/tedtheisinger, and on Bluesky at @tedtheisinger.com
If you’d like a copy of my full CV, please do get in touch!
