<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Ellen Stroud, Bryn Mawr College</span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><br></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">"Living Among the Dead: Corpses and Property Rights in U.S. Environmental History"</span></font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Dead human bodies may not be merely material, yet they are physical objects of significance and value.<span> </span>Who owns a corpse, and what rights and responsibilities does that ownership entail?<span> </span>Over<span> </span>the course of the twentieth century, Americans have answered those questions in very different ways, as their treatments – and uses – of dead bodies have transformed.<span> </span>Likewise, the presence of human remains has had shifting effects on what owners are able to do with buildings, plots of<span> </span>land, and rights of way.<span> </span>In this talk, Ellen Stroud draws from the research for her book project Dead as Dirt: An Environmental History of the Dead Body to explore the ways in which modern Americans live with and among the material dead.</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Friday, February 19, 2010</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">2:30 to 4:30 pm</p><p class="MsoNormal">Building E51 Room 095</p><p class="MsoNormal">Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Sponsored by MIT’s History Faculty and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. For more information or to be put on the mailing list, please contact <a href="mailto:mcollett@mit.edu">mcollett@mit.edu</a>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></body></html>