Richard S. Hopkins, PhD, MA, BA

Education

• PhD, European History (2008)
  Arizona State University (AZ)

About Me

I received my PhD in European history at Arizona State University in 2008. While a graduate student there, I was awarded an International Dissertation Research Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council, which allowed for a year of research abroad on the topic of the place of greenspace in the 19th century redesign of Paris. This research became the basis for my dissertation, Engineering Nature: Public Greenspaces in Nineteenth-Century Paris.

I was pleased to join the Widener faculty in 2014 and since then have enjoyed teaching and developing a variety of courses on the history of Europe from the Renaissance to the present. Most recently, I authored a book: Planning the Greenspaces of Nineteenth-Century Paris.

Research Interests

My research interests include urban space and urban populations with a particular focus on the human/environment relationship, urban planning and social geography, and transnational exchange and adaption of ideas about nature and cities. 

I am working on two research projects: One examines the assignation of meaning to and responsibility for public space through an examination of a particular park location that became a suicide destination in fin de sicle Paris. The other work considers Franco-British greenspace design and exchange from 1660–1880.

Publications

• Hopkins, Richard S. Planning the Greenspaces of Nineteenth-Century Paris. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, Forthcoming in May 2015.
• Hopkins, Richard S. "Sauvons le Luxembourg: Urban Greenspace as Private Domain and Public Battleground, 1865–1867." Journal of Urban History 37, no. 1 (2011): 43–58. Translated and published in China by the Institute of History Studies at Tianjin Academy of Social Science Press, Chengshi shi yanjin [Urban History Research] 27 (2011): 78–95.
• Hopkins, Richard S. "From Place to Espace: Napoleon III's Transformation of the Bois de Boulogne." Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History Conference 31 (2003): 197–211.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Historical Association (AHA), Western Society for French History (WSFH), Urban History Association (UHA), SFHS

Awards

• Faculty Development Grant, Widener University, 2014–2015
• Michael A. Steiner Award, Best Dissertation, Arizona State University, 2009
• International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF), SSRC-ACLS, 2007