Boston Flora

Tag: Aaron Sachs

  • Thursday, March 1, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – A Common Treasury for All: Toward a Deeper History of Environmental Justice

    Thursday, March 1, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – A Common Treasury for All: Toward a Deeper History of Environmental Justice

    In recent years, environmental justice scholarship has exploded. But virtually every relevant piece of work has understood the history of environmental justice as dating only to the late 20th century. The Harvard University Graduate School of Design Frederick Law Olmsted Lecture on Thursday, March 1 at 6:30 pm in the Gund Hall Piper Auditorium goes back to the 17th century, seeking to trace and analyze the evolution of a positive environmental rights discourse in European and American history. Having established our opposition to environmental injustice, we might want to ask: what exactly are we aiming for, in positive terms? What are the components of environmental justice? Is there any common ground left to stand on? And how might a deeper historical perspective help us answer these questions?

    Speaker Aaron Sachs is Professor of History and American Studies at Cornell University, where he has taught since 2004. In 2006, he published The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (Viking), which won Honorable Mention for the Frederick Jackson Turner Award, given to the best first book in the field of U.S. history by the Organization of American Historians (OAH). In 2013, he published Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition (Yale U. Press), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Sachs has also published articles in such journals as Environmental History, Rethinking History, American Quarterly, and History and Theory. In his graduate teaching, he works with students not only in History but also in English, Science and Technology Studies, History of Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Anthropology, and Natural Resources. At Cornell, Sachs is the faculty sponsor of a radical underground organization called Historians Are Writers, which brings together graduate students who believe that academic writing can be moving on a deeply human level. He is also the founder and coordinator of the Cornell Roundtable on Environmental Studies Topics (CREST). Sachs is currently at work on book projects focusing on environmental modernity; environmental justice; and environmental humor. Free and open to the public.

    Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

  • Thursday, March 9, 6:00 pm – Lewis Mumford’s Green Urbanism

    The Friends of Fairsted Lecture Series continues on Thursday, March 9 at 6 pm at the Wheelock College Brookline Campus 43 Hawes Street, Brookline, with a talk by Aaron Sachs, Professor of History and American Studies, Cornell University.

    In his early writings, Mumford accompanied his critique of modern cities with a positive, constructive vision for how people might design and occupy urban spaces more sustainably. This talk reconsiders Lewis Mumford’s writings of the 1930s as an early exemplar of green urbanism, in line with current trends in urban ecology and design.

    An environmental historian, Aaron Sachs investigates nature and culture from multi-disciplinary perspectives, looking at how ideas about nature have changed over time and how those changes have mattered in the western world. He is the author of The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (2006) and Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition (2013). Sachs supports innovative history writing with co-editor Jonathan Demos through Yale University Press’s New Directions in Narrative History series, and serves as the faculty sponsor of Historians Are Writers (HAW), bringing together Cornell graduate students who believe that academic writing can be moving on a deeply human level. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Reserve online at http://friendsoffairsted.org/programs/ or 617-566-1689, ext. 265.

  • Thursday, March 9, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Lewis Mumford’s Green Urbanism

    Friends of Fairsted present Lewis Mumford’s Green Urbanism with Aaron Sachs, Professor of History and American Studies, Cornell University. Seating is limited and reservations are required. The event takes place at Wheelock College, Brookline Campus, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline, MA 02446.

    Reserve online at http://friendsoffairsted.org/programs/register/or 617-566-1689, ext. 265.