Edmund Russell

Edmund Russell is a Professor of History and David M. Roderick Professor of Technology and Social Change at Carnegie Mellon University's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He joined the university in 2019, drawn by its interdisciplinary ethos. His research bridges environmental history, technology history, and American history, with a focus on coevolutionary dynamics, warfare, and capitalism.

He holds a B.A. in English (with distinction and highest honors) from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan (1993). His work synthesizes historical methodologies with biological principles, particularly ecology, evolution, and neuroscience.

Russell has authored influential books such as Greyhound Nation: A Coevolutionary History of England, 1200–1900 (2018) and Evolutionary History (2011). He leads a digital project on telegraph history (https://telegraph.library.cmu.edu/). His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, presidency of the American Society for Environmental History, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Russell’s current projects include a history of the U.S. transcontinental telegraph and exploring coevolutionary frameworks in environmental policy. He is actively involved in academic leadership, having served as Vice President for Research at the American Historical Association and as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians.