Beatrice Gordon

Bea Gordon is a B.A. candidate in English Literature with a focus on Modernist Literature and in Environmental History more particularly concentrated on the North American West. Her academic interests include outdoor education, the broadening spectrum of conservation in the West, and narrative time in early 20th century literature. Gordons’ research focuses on the translation of early American Civic Republicanism into modern American society. Understanding private property and more particularly land-ownership as central to the founding fathers’ model of Civic Republicanism, Gordon’s research will look at the ability or inability of public lands to function as private property in a more contemporary model. Within the context of America’s increasingly urban character, this will explore the National Parks as an instrument in the development of equal citizenship, national personality, and civic virtue. These questions will be addressed in two case studies: 1) the Brucellosis conflict in Yellowstone National Park and 2) minority recruitment in Yosemite National Park. Beatrice is working with Lael Weis.