NEWS

Environmental historian, author to speak on ‘saving nature’ Sept. 25

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. William Cronon, an environmental historian whose book "Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West" was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, will give a lecture on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m.

The free lecture, "Saving Nature in Time: The Past and the Future of Environmentalism," is part of the Carolina Environmental Program’s 2003-2004 Environmental Seminar Series. The location will be the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building auditorium, and a reception will follow in the fifth-floor lounge.

The event is co-sponsored by UNC’s Curriculum in Ecology.

Cronon, whose area of research includes American environmental history and human interactions with the natural world, has served as the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas research professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison since 1992. Before then, Cronon taught in Yale University’s history department for more than a decade.

A former president of the American Society for Environmental History, Cronon serves as general editor of the Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books series for the University of Washington Press and has published numerous books and articles. Besides "Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West," he wrote "Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England." His article "The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature" was included in "The Best American Essays 1996."

Cronon, a UW-Madison graduate, holds master of arts, master of philosophy and doctoral degrees from Yale. He also holds a doctorate from Oxford University.

The Carolina Environmental Program is a multidisciplinary initiative addressing factors that build an environmentally sustainable society. The program, which offers degrees in environmental science, environmental studies and ecology through the College of Arts and Sciences, fosters collaborative research on large-scale environmental problems such as air quality and provides technical assistance, training and up-to-date information on environmental issues to N.C. communities.

The Curriculum in Ecology, involving the resources and faculty of many departments, provides both broad and specialized training in ecology, human ecology and the study of environmental systems.

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Carolina Environmental Program contact: Tony Reevy, (919) 966-9927 or tony_reevy@unc.edu
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu