San Francisco Program 2014
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Crossing Divides Annual Conference March 12 - 16, 2014 San Francisco, California i ASEH is very grateful to the University of California- Table of Contents Berkeley and Stanford University for hosting this We are also very grateful to the following individuals for conference. their support of this conference: Welcome from the Local Arrangements Committee 2 In addition, we thank the following sponsors for their Anonymous generous contributions: Colin Milburn, University of California-Davis, the Gary Snyder Chair A Note from the Program Committee 4 Arizona State University Public History Program John Reiger, Ohio University California Historical Society Edmund Russell, University of Kansas California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Jeanie Sherwood, Davis, California Conference at a Glance 5 California State University-East Bay, Departments of Garrison Sposito, University of California, Berkeley, The Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, and Betty and Isaac Barshad Chair in Soil Science History Joel Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University Conference Information 6 Carnegie Melon University Center for Ecological History, Renmin University of China Program design by Roxane Barwick, Arizona State Location and Lodging 6 Center of the American West, University of Colorado- University Registration 6 Boulder Transportation 6 Forest History Society Photos courtesy Travel San Francisco, Lisa Mighetto, and Local Weather 7 John Muir Center, University of the Pacific Laura A. Watt Cancellations 7 La Boulange de Yerba Buena Child Care 7 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Twitter 7 National Science Foundation Commitment to Sustainability 7 Network in Canadian History & Environment (NiCHE) Questions? Contact: 7 Next Exit History Oxford University Press Special Events 8 Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich Santa Clara University Workshops 8 Sonoma State University Receptions 8 Stanford University: Plenary Sessions 9 Bill Lane Center for the American West Breakfasts 9 Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis Luncheons 9 Department of History Field trips 9 University of California Berkeley: Additional Friday Events 15 Berkeley Institute of the Environment Saturday Evening Events 15 College of Environmental Design College of Letters and Science/Arts Exhibits 15 and Humanities College of Letters and Science/Social Science College of Natural Resources Posters 16 Department of Anthropology Department of English Department of Environmental Science, Policy, Travel Grants 17 and Management (ESPM) ESPM, Division of Society and Environment ASEH grants 17 Department of Geography NSF grants 17 Department of History Department of Spanish and Portuguese Concurrent Sessions 18 University of California-Davis, Departments of American Studies, English, and History University of California-Riverside, Public History Program ASEH Committees 38 University of California-Santa Cruz, Department of History University of Colorado-Boulder, Department of History University of Delaware, Department of History Index 40 University of Kansas, Department of History University of Wisconsin-Madison: Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Advertisements 44 Nelson Institute Center for Culture, History, and Environment USDA Forest Service Hotel Maps 67 Winslow Foundation Welcome from the Local Arrangements Committee This tale could go on and on. California has densely populated cities and vast stretches of wilderness. It has its dry areas and much wetter areas. Great irrigated farms worked by migrant labor merge into sprawling suburbs with high-tech geeks. Poverty stricken slums bump up against the glitter of Hollywood. We invite you to come feast your eyes, nourish your gray San Francisco! This beautiful city on the bay has bedazzled and inspired countless generations of residents and travel- cells, renew old friendships, and make new contacts for your work in environmental history. And if you would like some ers. Yet California, the Bay Area, and San Francisco provide environmental historians far more than just a great city for excellent areas for study, California has a slew of them. It’s highly diversified, with different people shaping and being a conference. This area has spawned numerous ideas, movements, and technologies that have reshaped the physical shaped by the physical environment. environment, the human communities that lived here, and the way people live on earth. Be sure and take advantage of the various field trips available.They can walk you through interesting parts of San Fran- The theme of this year’s conference, “Crossing Divides,” invites discussion about exactly what it means, and California’s cisco, take you on a boat to see the magnificent Bay, lead you on a walk through ancient redwoods, encourage you to many divides makes this a great place for those debates. It’s not that California is somehow unique in having “divides,” consider the role of fire, and expose you to the developments in renewable energy in the area – and more. but the divisions here—indeed sometimes chasms—constantly remind us of their presence. Indeed, the iconic bridges, especially the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, have powerfully united the East Bay area and Marin County to the And of course, all the diversity of California makes it easy to cross culinary divides! Within walking distance of the confer- economy of the San Francisco peninsula. These bridges crossed physical divides to remake the Bay Area. ence hotel, you can find great emporiums of all the world’s tasty cuisines. Consider just a few other divides in California that are centers of inquiry for environmental historians. California’s geogra- We hope you enjoy this conference and your stay in San Francisco. phy produces an amazing diversity of micro-climates and biological systems, which has always heavily influenced and dis- tinguished the human societies that lived here. Lightfoot and Parrish recently updated and reinterpreted the archeology- The 2014 Local Arrangements Committee: anthropology of California’s amazing diversity of ethno-linguistic-political communities that called this place home before European contact. The vast majority of these people did not farm, but they managed their landscapes with fire and other Carolyn Merchant, University of California-Berkeley, co-chair tools. Each group found ways to make things around them into resources, and the first inhabitants thrived. John Perkins, The Evergreen State College, co-chair Laura A. Watt, Sonoma State University, co-chair California’s native peoples suffered horribly from contact with the Europeans. First the Spanish, then Mexican, and finally Gray Brechin, University of California-Berkeley, visiting scholar American immigrants brought diseases and violence to the Indian peoples that nearly destroyed them. The newcomers, Robert Chester, University of California-Berkeley too, however, recognized the geographic and physical diversity of California and learned to use its resources to build first Jon Christensen, University of California-Los Angeles an agrarian and then a highly industrialized culture. Mark Cioc, University of California-Santa Cruz Barton Elmore, University of California-Berkeley As Donald Worster and others have recognized, the Americans in California manipulated water and moved it vast dis- Margot Higgins, University of California-Berkeley, graduate student tances from where it is abundant (primarily the Sierras) to where it is not (the farms of the Central Valley and the now huge Kerwin Klein, University of California-Berkeley coastal cities). This hydraulic society suffered many injustices, but the hallmark of the new California was built on irriga- Christopher Jones, Arizona State University (formerly a visiting scholar at UCB) tion. The glass of water you may enjoy at the Parc 55 Wyndham probably began as snowfall in Yosemite National Park, Dan McGrath, Berkeley Institute of the Environment melted into the Tuolomne River, flowed into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir behind the O’Shaughnessy Dam (yes, the dam John Christine Rosen, University of California-Berkeley Muir thought should not be built), and ultimately flowed to San Francisco through massive pipes across the Central alley.V Nicholas Sakellariou, University of California-Berkeley, graduate student Richard Walker, University of California-Berkeley Perhaps less celebrated than the exploitation of water has been California’s place in the history of the oil industry. First Louis Warren, University of California-Davis efforts began in 1865, and by the early 20th century California was a major exporter of oil. Given the abundance of the Marian Weidner, former graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Madison fuel it is perhaps no surprise that California hosted some of the first cities that were built for the automobile. Its legendary Richard White, Stanford University freeway systems still constitute one of the defining marks of Californian’s relationship to the environment. Mikael Wolfe, Stanford University Mary Woolsey, University of California-Berkeley, former graduate student Today immense divides still remain between people, regions, and patterns of resource use in California. The long-standing Terence Young, California State University-Pomona quip has always been about the differences between southern California (Los Angeles and San Diego as the major cities) and northern California (centered from San Francisco-San Jose to Sacramento). An equal or bigger divide in the State, however, is from east to west. As one commentator noted, driving from