Today: Matthew Wynn Sivils to Give Inaugural CEAH Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities Lecture
Author:
CEAH Fellowship Event: The Literary Aftershocks of the New Madrid Earthquakes
Wednesday, Feb. 4
6:30 p.m.: Reception with cash bar and hors d’oeuvres
7:00 p.m.: Lecture and readings, Upper Rotunda, Parks Library
Tonight’s opening lecture in a four-part series will focus on the literary aftershocks of one of the most powerful natural disasters ever to strike North America: the New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811–1812. Sivils will also examine how the fictionalization of such a cataclysm in early American fiction served as an indicator of growing environmental anxiety among Americans as the nation moved away from its agricultural origins toward an increasingly industrialized future.