Assistant professor Patrick J. (PJ) Klinger teaches the two-semester World History course as well as upper-division courses in environmental history, climate history, and maritime history. He is a graduate of Marshall University, East Carolina University, and the University of Kansas. Klinger’s interdisciplinary research examines the role that weather and climate has on the interconnections between humans and the natural world. His current research projects explore how environmental and climatic changes influenced trade, political decisions, thought processes, human subsistence, adaptability, and ideas of resiliency from the early modern period to the present, while simultaneously inspiring new ways of perceiving, interpreting, and representing nature and provoking changes in the sea and land.

At VMI, Klinger organizes the World History group study sessions and leads the department’s honors program.