Plants and Animals in the Field, Oracles on the Page

Speaker:

Members of the Black Earth Institute

18 Feb 2008

2:15 PM

Pioneer Room, Memorial Union

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Members of the Black Earth Institute will discuss scientific work and observation of animals in the field. They will then examine the transformation of those animal images into both stereotype and oracular wisdom on the literary page. Their remarks will include the observation of grapes, pumpkins wolves, eagles and other creatures that have become important symbols in Native American stories, fairy tales, and Celtic and African mythology. The Black Earth Institute is a progressive think-tank dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society. Participants include Cristina Eisenberg, Deborah Holton, Patricia Monaghan, and Mary Swander. Part of the 4th Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination.

This lecture was made possible in part by the generosity of F. Wendell Miller, who left his entire estate jointly to Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. Mr. Miller, who died in 1995 at age 97, was born in Altoona, Illinois, grew up in Rockwell City, graduated from Grinnell College and Harvard Law School and practiced law in Des Moines and Chicago before returning to Rockwell City to manage his family's farm holdings and to practice law. His will helped to establish the F. Wendell Miller Trust, the annual earnings on which, in part, helped to support this activity.