ONLINE: Wrenched from the Land: Perspectives from the Front Lines of Environmental Activism

press release:  Join the Nelson Institute Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) for a panel discussion inspired by award-winning photographer and filmmaker ML Lincoln’s book, Wrenched from the Land: Activists Inspired by Edward Abbey. Through a conversation with Lincoln as well as several of America’s most iconic environmental activists including Terry Tempest Williams, Doug Peacock, and Jack Loeffler, we will explore what motivates and sustains environmental activism--past, present, and future. This event will be moderated by University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus, Charlie Carlin, and will feature a panel of CHE graduate students: Kassia Shaw, John Koban, and David Greenwood-Sanchez.

To order your copy of Wrenched from the Land, visit: A Room of One's Own

Speakers:

ML Lincoln is a storyteller, activist, author, award-winning photographer, and filmmaker. Lincoln is the producer and director of the esteemed documentaries, Wrenched and Drowning River.

Jack Loeffler is an aural historian, environmentalist, writer, radio producer, and sound-collage artist. He is the author or editor of many books, including Thinking Like a Watershed: Voices from the West, Survival Along the Continental Divide: An Anthology of Interviews, and Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey (all from UNM Press).

Doug Peacock is an author and naturalist. Peacock has published widely on wilderness issues ranging from grizzly bears to buffalo, from the Sonoran Desert to the Fjords of British Columbia, from the tigers of Siberia to the blue sheep of Nepal. Among his many books, is the renowned Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness. Peacock was a friend of Abbey’s, and the model for the character George Hayduke in the riotous novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Terry Tempest Williams is distinguished for her magical, lyrical writing on the ethical, political, and spiritual relationships between wilderness and humans. She is a crucial voice for combining ecological consciousness and ethical social change. Williams has received numerous awards for her leadership in the American conservation movement.

Moderator:

Charlie Carlin works as director of strategic initiatives at Gathering Waters: Wisconsin's Alliance for Land Trusts where he advocates for public funding for conservation. Carlin holds a PhD in Geography from UW-Madison. His academic research focuses on the interrelationship of the human psyche and the more-than-human world. He also occasionally works as a wilderness guide for the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Panelists:

Kassia Shaw is a PhD candidate in the composition & rhetoric program within the English Department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research explores environmental storytelling about land restoration, health, and community identity. She is currently writing a dissertation about how multispecies storytelling emerges through land relations and environmental restoration practices in Mąą Wakącąk, the Ho-Chunk name for “Sacred Earth,” also known as the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant (BAAP) in Merrimac, Wisconsin.

John Koban is a dissertator in the English Department and a Graduate Associate with the Center for Culture, History, and Environment at UW-Madison. His research explores public features of environmental conflict and controversy in the Upper Midwest, particularly around issues of settler colonialism, treaty rights, and cooperative management among Native nations, U.S. States, and the U.S. Koban is also a teacher who enjoys teaching rhetoric and creative approaches to environmental and place-based writing.

David Greenwood-Sanchez is a PhD candidate in political science at UW-Madison. His research examines the politics of genetically modified crops in Peru and Mexico. He is especially interested in understanding the origins of governance over genetic resources, and the ways in which cultural politics influence regulatory decisions. He holds a BA in economics from Whitman College and an MPP from the University of Minnesota. Greenwood-Sanchez enjoys playing music (guitar and violin) and is a passionate potato enthusiast.