He also directs the fledgling Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment in the South (CHASES) and is executive secretary of the Agricultural History Society. He earned his BA and played basketball for DePauw University. He earned his MA degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Giesen is the author of award-winning articles in Environmental History and Agricultural History and of the book Boll Weevil Blues: Cotton, Myth, and Power in the American South (University of Chicago Press, 2011). He has recieved teaching awards from the University of Georgia and Mississippi State University.