LEWISBURG - The Bucknell University Environmental Center is hosting a series of talks exploring the human-nature relationship in the Susquehanna River valley.
The series, "Stories of the Susquehanna Valley," is sponsored by the Nature and Human Communities Initiative of the BUEC. Events are free and open to the public.
The series began Sept. 6, with the talk, "Rural Homelessness in the Central Susquehanna Region," by Heather Feldhaus, director of the Bloomsburg University Center for Community Research and Consulting, in the Smith Library of the Vaughan Literature Building at Bucknell.
The book series connects with Bucknell's development of digital humanities projects, with its project to create accompanying online materials (including a cultural atlas), as well as the involvement of faculty and students with research supporting the new Susquehanna national historic trail. Related courses include a co-taught Integrated Perspectives course, "The Susquehanna Country" this fall. The goal is interactive scholarship involving communities and students as well as faculty, through books, online multimedia materials and talks, according to a news release from the university.
Other events in the series include:
Sept. 20: Jason Weigle, case manager for Shell Appalachia Operations Group and instructor in Community and Economic Development at Penn State.
Oct. 4: Tom Greaves, professor emeritus of sociology and anthropology, "Lewisburg Architecture Project." Greaves will describe the project, begun in 2005, to compile a photographic inventory of structures within Lewisburg's historic district.
Oct. 11: Kate Hastings, associate professor of communications, Susquehanna University, "The African-American Experience in Milton;" Hastings is completing work on the African-American history of central Pennsylvania 1772-1940, particularly as it was told by area newspapers.
Nov. 1: David Del Testa, associate professor of history, and Tom Rich, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, "H&C Grove's Mill/water-powered grist mills in Union County."
Nov. 29: Lisa Davis, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, "The State of Rural Health Care."
In addition, a panel discussion about Lewisburg and the Federal Prison is being planned for Oct. 25. Details will be released later.
The series will culminate in a talk in late January with "Interpreting the Susquehanna" by the co-editors of the book series, Bucknell professors Katherine Faull and Alf Siewers, coinciding with an author talk by David Minderhout at the Bucknell Barnes & Noble bookstore, dates still to be determined.
The first volumes in the book series, "Native Americans in the Susquehanna Valley: Past and Present," a collection edited by Minderhout, and "Coal Dust on Your Feet: Living through Prosperity and Decline in an Anthracite Mining Town," are due out within the next several months from the Bucknell University Press.
