Second Annual Symposium on Wildness & Wilderness

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 Sponsored by the ISU Creative Writing Program, The Writers’ Bloc, the Agrestal Fund, the Committee on Lectures, and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

 

Restorying the Land 

A Two-Day Symposium on Transformation of Place Through Memory, Imagination, and Narrative
February 20 - 22, 2006
Memorial Union, Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

“How do people imagine the landscapes they find themselves in?” Barry Lopez asks in Arctic Dreams.  “How does the land shape the imaginations of the people who dwell in it?”  In the 2^nd Annual Symposium on Wildness and Wilderness, we will pursue questions of narratives of place—how we are shaped by the prevailing narratives of our habitats and how we might be able to re-shape and re-imagine them with our own stories. 

The two and a half day symposium will feature evening keynote addresses by three nationally-known writers, plus panel discussions, talks, musical performances, and readings by ISU faculty from diverse disciplines across the university.  We are also inviting participation from environmental thinkers, workers, and artists from the region.  Panel topics and times are to be announced.

A List of Highlights:

Readings by three nationally-known authors:

• Richard Manning, literary journalist and author of several books, including Grasslands and Against the Grain: How Agriculture Hijacked Civilization;   
• Allison Hedge Coke, author of two collections of poetry—Off-Season City Pipe and Dog Road Woman—and a memoir, Rock, Ghost, Willow Deer: A Story of Survival;
• Dan O’Brien, novelist, memoirist and buffalo rancher, author of several books including Buffalo for the Broken Heart and Equinox: Life, Love, and Birds of Prey

Evening Performances by two musical projects:

• World Port (Instrumental Wind-Synthesizer and Guitar)
• The Mike & Amy Finders Band (Bluegrass & Folk Music)

Panel Discussions on the following subjects:

• Mapping the Invisible Landscape
• Domestication & Eco-Catastrophe
• Which Eden?  Restoration, Conservation Ecology, and Bioethics
• Facing the Elements: The Weather & Other Wildness
• The Trickster as Transformer
• Urban Wildness, Terror, and Deviant Landscapes
• The Legacy of Aldo Leopold

Documentary Film & Talk by author/filmmaker, Sarah Penman

• Viewing of Penman’s emmy-nominated documentary, Nokomis—Voices of Anishinabe Grandmothers, followed by discussion with filmmaker.

Conference Pre-Event, Wednesday, Feb. 15th

• Screening of Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers & Tides, a documentary about the environmental artist, Andy Goldsworthy.

For more details on the symposium see the complete schedule and remember, all events are free and open to the public. Plus, no registration is required. For hotel accomdations, please contact Memorial Union Hotel (515-292-1111)

For questions or additional information, contact Debra Marquart, Dept. of English, Iowa State University, (515) 294-3173 or marquart@iastate.edu.

Back to 2006 Agrestal Events.

 

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.