<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 17pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: rgb(0, 51, 0); "><b><i>MIT Seminar on Environmental and<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 17pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: rgb(0, 51, 0); "><b><i>Agricultural History<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: rgb(0, 48, 137); "><b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Arial Bold Italic'; color: maroon; "><b><i>“Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies:<span> </span>Georgia's 'Little Grand Canyon' and Conservation in the South”<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: rgb(14, 94, 10); "><b><i> </i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: rgb(0, 51, 0); "><b>Paul Sutter<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 30.6pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: rgb(0, 51, 0); ">Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 30.6pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: 150%; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#003300" face="'Century Schoolbook'" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; "><br></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0.25in; margin-left: 9pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Known as Georgia's "Little Grand Canyon," Providence Canyon State Park protects some striking canyon and badland formations in west central Georgia. But this spectacular spot resulted from massive erosion allegedly produced by negligent cotton farming during the 19th century. Providence Canyon is the biggest erosion gully the South has produced and was famous back in the 1930s.<span> </span>During that decade, the locals tried to make it into a national park, insisting that it was a natural formation of unparalleled scenic beauty. Meanwhile, national soil conservationists and environmental reformers consistently invoked it as the poster-child of southern soil abuse, a potent visual symbol of human-induced environmental degradation. I will examine what it means to preserve as a park the results of an environmental disaster, how two groups could interpret the place in such diametrically opposed ways, and how we might interpret the place today in ways that would help us to rethink the relationship between southerners, their soils, and the politics of environmental representation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 0.25in; text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: green; "><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 0.25in; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: maroon; "><b>Friday, September 26, 2008<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: maroon; "><b>2:30 to 4:30 pm<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: maroon; "><b>Building E51 Room 095<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: maroon; "><b>Corner of Wadsworth and Amherst Streets, Cambridge<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook'; color: navy; "><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-right: 30.6pt; text-align: center; "><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; ">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 Margo Collett at <a href="mailto:mcollet@mit.edu">mcollett@mit.edu</a>. </span></p></div></body></html>