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Kenneth M. Sylvester
Affiliated Programs:
Michigan Historical Demography Workshop
Funded Research:
Sustaining Populations and Landscapes at Risk: Adaptation in the American Grasslands (NICHD)
Research Affiliate, Population Studies Center.
Research Associate Professor, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.
Ph.D., York University
Dr. Sylvester studies demographic and socioeconomic behavior in relation to environmental change. A historian by training, Sylvester uses census microdata, geo-spatial data, multivariate and simulation methods to study human-environment relationships, adaptive behavior, agrarian society and environmental impacts, mainly in western North America. Sylvester serves as PI and co-investigator on several awards (NIH, NSF and SSHRC), including the recently funded "Sustaining Populations and Landscapes at Risk." He also serves as incoming co-editor, with J. David Hacker, of the interdisciplinary journal Historical Methods.
Recent Publications
Books
Gutmann, Myron, G.D. Deane, Kenneth M. Sylvester, and E.R. Merchant. 2011. Navigating Time and Space in Population Studies. New York : Springer. Abstract.
Journal Articles
Maxwell, S., and Kenneth M. Sylvester. 2012. "Identification of "ever-cropped" land (1984-2010) using Landsat annual maximum NDVI image composites: Southwestern Kansas case study." Remote Sensing of Environment, 121: 186-195. PMCID: PMC3298121. DOI. Abstract.
Sylvester, Kenneth M., and E.S A. Rupley. 2012. "Revising the Dust Bowl: High Above the Kansas Grasslands." Environmental History, 17(3): 603-633. DOI. Abstract.
Sylvester, Kenneth M. 2009. "Ecological Frontiers on the Grasslands of Kansas: Changes in Farm Scale and Crop Diversity." Journal of Economic History, 69(4): 1041-1062. PMCID: PMC2835352. DOI. Abstract.
Sylvester, Kenneth M., and Geoff Cunfer. 2009. "An Unremembered Diversity: Mixed Husbandry and the American Grasslands." Agricultural History, 83(3): 352-383. PMCID: PMC2766303. DOI. Abstract.
Chapters
Leonard, Susan Hautaniemi, Myron Gutmann, Glenn D. Deane , and Kenneth M. Sylvester. 2010. "Drought and the Lifecycle/Landuse Trajectory in Agricultural Households." In Demographic Responses to Economic and Environmental Crises, Proceedings of the IUSSP Seminar May 21-23, 2009, Reitaku University edited by Satomi Kuroso, Tommy Bengtsson and Cameron Campbell. Kashiwa, Japan: Reitaku University.
Sylvester, Kenneth M., and Myron Gutmann. 2008. "Changing Agrarian Landscapes Across America: A Comparative Perspective." In Agrarian Landscapes in Transition edited by Charles Redman and David Foster. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sylvester, Kenneth M., and Myron Gutmann. 2008. "Dustbowl Legacies: Long Term Change and Resilience in the Shortgrass Steppe." In Agrarian Landscapes in Transition edited by Charles Redman and David Foster. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sylvester, Kenneth M., and C.L. Redman. 2007. "Integrating the Biophysical and Social Sciences." In Managing Agricultural Landscapes for Environmental Quality: Strengthening the Science Base edited by Schnepf, Max and Craig Cox. Ames, Iowa: Soil and Water Conservation Society.
Sylvester, Kenneth M. 2007. "Rural to Urban Migration: Finding Household Complexity in a New World Environment." In Household Counts: Canadian Households and Families in 1901 edited by Peter Baskerville and Eric W. Sager. 147-179. University of Toronto Press.