STEM Ed Announcement: Writer Stanley Crawford opens Environmental Lecture Series

[Morton Sternheim <mort@k12s.phast.umass.edu>]

This is a free UMass Amherst program open to the public.
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Writer Stanley Crawford opens Environmental Lecture Series

The spring Environmental Lecture Series kicks off Feb. 17 with ?A River, A
Place,? a talk by novelist, essayist and farming activist Stanley
Crawford, a visiting writer with the MFA Program for Poets and Writers, at
3:30 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge of the Student Union.

All lectures in the series touch on sustainability and a key theme that
links the talks is an exploration of what makes an expert able to
communicate effectively and engage audiences outside of their respective
disciplines.

Crawford, a 40-year resident of the Embudo Valley of northern New Mexico,
will talk about his experiences as a farmer and an acequia commissioner
and mayordomo or ditch boss, in relation to the dynamics of a small
community and how it has remained successful and how it must face the
challenges of the future. He will illustrate his talk with readings of
short passages from his writings on the subject and a series of
photographs taken daily of the Rio Embudo, the stream on which his
community depends for its livelihood.

He is the author of eight books, including ?Mayordomo: Chronicle of an
Acequia in Northern New Mexico,? ?A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small
Farm in New Mexico,? and ?The River in Winter: New and Collected Essays.?
In addition to his three non-fiction books, Crawford has published five
novels. ?Petroleum Man,? a satirical novel, was published by The Overlook
Press, New York, in early 2005; in 2006 his first novel, ?Gascoyne? was
reissued, as was his third novel, ?Log of the S.S. The Mrs.Unguentine? in
2008. His essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Los
Angeles Times, Smithsonian and High Country News.

The series continues March 9 when Kerry Emanuel, professor of geosciences
at MIT, speaks on ?Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes.?
Other speakers include Nalini Nadkarni, professor at Evergreen State
College and a National Geographic speaker (April 27) and designer