Joanna Dyl

Joanna L. Dyl is an environmental historian who studies the modern U.S. West. She is the author of Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco’s 1906 Earthquake (University of Washington Press, 2017). Seismic City explores the history of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, the devastating fires that followed and the city’s recovery and rebuilding. It argues that the disaster challenged the separation of city and nature and disturbed spatial divisions of class and race, threatening the perceived permanence of the urban order. The processes of recovery and rebuilding reinscribed power relations in the city despite the resistance of non-elites and reinforced urban development practices that exacerbated seismic risks. Seismic City analyzes the complex causes of a so-called “natural” disaster, the problem of urban adaptation to catastrophe and on-the-ground experiences of destruction and rebuilding under a regime of early disaster capitalism. It foregrounds the experiences of working-class people, the Chinese community and the more-than-human forces and residents of San Francisco, from the seismically-active land itself to the city’s rats and chickens.

Dyl is currently conducting research on the environmental history of California’s beaches. For most people, California’s iconic beaches represent nature, but today’s wide sandy beaches are far less natural than they appear. In fact, they are the product of decades of coastal engineering – construction of breakwaters and sea walls, dredging of marinas and harbors, and building up beaches with imported sand. Beaches are perhaps the most naturally dynamic ecosystems on earth, and left alone, they shrink and expand, disappear and re-form. Their natural dynamism poses problems for their use as tourist attractions, economic drivers, and recreational or residential spaces. Dyl’s research explores the history of California’s beaches from the 1920s to the 1970s, including the intended and unintended consequences of coastal engineering practices; the challenges of coastal erosion, landslides and flooding; and problems of preservation and public access.

Dyl’s teaching is broadly interdisciplinary. She teaches EA10 Introduction to Environmental Analysis and EA20 Nature, Culture, and Society. She has also taught courses on environmental history and environmental justice. In Fall 2022, she is teaching a new course on California Beaches that integrates history, policy and science to explore the past, present and future of the California coast.