Forests : A Lecture and Discussion series
The Fall 2020 program.
Forests are microcosms of Gaia, the planetary system that emerges from the totality of living beings and the sum of their environmental modulations to produce and sustain habitable conditions for the current biosphere. Over geological time, Gaia has been doing its best to cool the planet against the ever-increasing luminosity of the sun. Drawing down atmospheric carbon for eons, Gaia has operated to keep the planetary climate comfortably cool. In this light, forest ecosystems may be considered as Gaian subsystems, each one cooling and humidifying the planetary surface in its vicinity, building up complex, diverse, and desirable habitats--but only as long as they’re left intact. The repercussions of the forests’ climate maintenance extend far beyond their own borders. They are planet makers in their own right, and their loss would be not merely a regional but a planetary catastrophe in the making.
The Humanities Center at Texas Tech’s annual theme for 2020-2021 is Forests. All this academic year, we will be thinking about forests—what they are, how they work--especially when they are healthy, how we have always lived in their shadow and under their shade even while we took them for granted, and why their preservation truly matters. We will also be thinking with forests in order to come to grips with the contemporary state of the biosphere at large and how we humans, the beneficiaries and the consumers of forests, might proceed from here, might learn things from the trees and the forests to make positive differences in face of the ecological challenges we currently confront.
Director: Bruce Clarke
Team: Curtis Bauer, Michael Borshuk, Sankar Chatterjee, Sara Spurgeon, Christopher Witmore
Additional Details: The Humanities Center at Texas Tech
September / Forests & the Earth
Welcome to the Forests theme
Thursday, September 17, 7:30 pm
A discussion of Intelligent Trees: The Documentary, featuring forest ecologist Suzanne Simard and forester Peter Wohlleben.
Moderator: Bruce Clarke
The Evolution and Ecology of Forests
Caveat: Dr. Chatterjee's slideshow was not shared. Pardon the omission.
Thursday, September 24, 7:00 pm
- Sankar Chatterjee, Geosciences, TTU, "The Origin and Evolution of Forests"
- John Zak, Biological Sciences, TTU, "The Fungal Ecology of Forests"
- Dylan Schwilk, Biological Sciences, TTU, "Fire and the Forest 'Sky Islands' of West Texas and the Southwest"
Moderator: Bruce Clarke
October / Forests & the Human
Pisgah National Forest: A Web Exhibition
Thursday, October 15, 7:30 pm
- Christopher Witmore, archaeologist, TTU
- Jen Gates-Foster, archaeologist, University of North Carolina
- Caleb T. Lightfoot, architect and designer
Moderator: Bruce Clarke
Becoming Sensor for a Planthroposcene
Thursday, October 22, 7:30 pm
Natasha Myers, anthropologist, York University, Toronto, Canada
Moderator: Bruce Clarke
November / Native Land Practices: Indigenous Cuisine and Forest Care
Tree Food: Forests, Indigenous American Cuisines, and Native Food Sovereignty
Thursday, November 5, 7:30 pm
- M. Karlos Baca (Tewa/Dinè/Nuuciu), founder of Taste of Native Cuisine
- Rachel Sayet (Mohegan), chef and Indigenous Food Activist
Moderators: Sara Spurgeon and Vickie Sutton
Forest Restoration Theory and Practice Based on Indigenous Cultural Tending
Thursday, November 12, 7:30 pm
Lee Klinger, Independent Scientist, Sudden Oak Life, Big Sur, CA
Moderators: Bruce Clarke and Vickie Sutton
Member discussion