Mars Plater

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Rutgers University

Research Interests

The environment, environmentalism, leisure, labor, cities, parks, immigration, whiteness, and policing.

Biography

After growing up in a suburb of Boston, Mars Plater earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Human Rights at Bard College, an M.A. in History at Brooklyn College, and a Ph.D. in History at Rutgers University. Mars is working on a book that explores green spaces of nineteenth-century New York City as sites of pleasure, struggle, and resistance for the diverse and divided working class. Their research has received support from the American Council of Learned Societies, Andrew Mellon Foundation Fellowship in Museum Education, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. Mars loves eating carbs, petting cats, reading sci-fi, and walking on beaches in all sorts of weather.

Selected Writings

“Tonic for Body or Soul: Fresh Air for Children in Progressive Era New York City,” Journal of Urban History (August 2021): 1-26.
“NYC Parks as Historical Battlegrounds Between Black Equality and White Supremacy,” Gotham Blog, Gotham Center for New York City History, June 2020.
“Centuries of Protest at City Hall Park,” History News Network, July 2020.
“Steamboat Excursions in the Era of Chinese Exclusion,” Hudson River Maritime Museum History Blog, October 2020.
“Stretching to Understand Renegade Urban Fireworks,” The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association, September 2020.