Ashton Merck is a historian and climate researcher who lives in Durham, North Carolina.

I am the Program Manager for Climate Research + Engagement at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC.

Before joining the Museum, I spent a decade in academia. I earned a PhD in History from Duke University, where, among other things, I wrote a dissertation on management-based regulation in food safety in the twentieth century.

While I was trained as a historian of law, business, and public health, my research also led me to communities in agricultural and environmental history, economics, and regulatory governance. I have taught college courses on regulation and public policy, and regularly guest lecture on food safety.

From 2021-2024, I was a postdoctoral researcher at NC State University, where I had the opportunity to work closely with scientists and engineers on topics as varied as nanotechnology in food and agriculture to sweetpotatoes to phosphorus sustainability.

From 2020-2024 I was the Associate Editor for H-Business, where I created content for an online newsletter serving business and economic historians, like this interview series featuring early career scholars. 

You can find a list of my peer-reviewed publications here or here, but I’m probably the most proud of a short piece I wrote for Contingent magazine, about the weirdest crank letter I’ve ever found in the archives.

I am an advocate for rethinking the purpose and content of graduate education in various forms. I have written about the value of doing collaborative research as a humanist, how to broaden career paths for historians, and how to incorporate digitized primary sources into historical pedagogy. I am also quite candid about what a PhD can and cannot do for one’s career prospects.