UMD is hosting Environmental Humanities Day on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 from 2:30–6 pm. It’s free and open to the public.
• 2:30–3:30 pm — Environmental Humanities Open House Kirby Garden Room, 1120 Kirby Drive Open house features environmental researchers, projects, and ideas.
• 4–6 pm — International Research Roundtable Bagley Nature Center Classroom, 703 Oakland Ctr. Presentations by scholars from the U of M and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) in Munich, Germany.
Annka Liepold, RCC: “Seeds of Success: How the Corn Seed Industry Shaped Olivia, MN”
Christian Bell, UMTC: “PerFarming the Land: Cultivating Space for Public Scholarship”
Sasha Gora, RCC: “Going Native? The Influence of the New Nordic Food Movement on Canadian Cuisines and its (Re)imaginations of First Nations Food Cultures”
Kiley Kost, UMTC: “Pilze in the Pages: Learning from Mushrooms in German Literature”
Elena Torres Ruiz, RCC: “Discrimination, Rebellion, Reform – Food Justice and Alternative Economies in Detroit since the 1960s”
Pavla Šimková, RCC: “Bohemian Beer in the History of the Czech Lands and the United States”
The environmental humanities explore critical points of interaction between nature and culture, drawing on disciplinary backgrounds ranging from history and literature to geography and anthropology.
Assistant Professor Seth Peabody from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, who coordinated the presentations, says Duluth is exactly the right location for this event. “With its proximity to the natural landscapes of northern Minnesota, numerous faculty studying environmental issues from both scientific and cultural perspectives, and a strong interest in the environment across the student body, UMD is well positioned for studying the environmental humanities.”
Environmental Humanities Day is led by faculty from UMD’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Program in Environment and Sustainability. It’s happening in conjunction with an ongoing, collaborative UMN research project.