UCR history prof to address Natures conference

David Biggs plans to explore a broad range of topics this Friday, from environmental preservation and degradation, to the complexities of juggling academic life, research and family.

Biggs, associate history professor at the University of California, Riverside will give a plenary address and a seminar on Feb. 17 for Natures 2012, an annual humanities conference at La Sierra University for masters and doctoral students. His plenary talk, titled “Between Wasteland and Wilderness,” discusses environmental history with various definitions and perspectives on nature, wilderness, environmental preservation and destruction.

His seminar talk, titled “Love, Money, and Glory: Navigating Academic Life and Continuing the Pursuit of Research,” will include anecdotes and observations from his own experiences.

The conference will be held between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. with presentations and a panel discussion given by 17 masters and doctoral students. Their topics vary from the controversial Keystone Pipeline project, to the national role of Hong Kong Television post World War II, to the status of libraries in the era of Google.

The Natures conference is open to graduate students across the nation and typically pulls in participants from several states. This year's conference is no exception with masters and doctoral students arriving from universities and institutions in Tennessee and New York, and locally from Glendale, Claremont, Fullerton and Riverside. They represent disciplines in English, history, art history, cultural studies, digital humanities and library sciences.

Presenters from the City University of New York Graduate Center, the New York Public Library and the Glendale Public Library will hold a panel discussion from 1:30-3 p.m. on “The Role of the Library as Defender of the Liberal Arts,” an event that will explore the importance of libraries in an Internet age.

The conference is the fourth such event held at La Sierra University since La Sierra's English graduate students joined forces in 2009 to help establish it. The name, Natures, derives from the conviction that while the various humanities disciplines each have their own natures, perspectives and techniques, communication between them is vital. Additionally, the title addresses the emerging critical role of the environment in the discussion between humanities scholars.

Tiffany Hutabarat, a former English graduate student at La Sierra designed the conference icon, a tree with curling branches and lightening bolt roots. It is intended to represent the aspirations of the graduate students who initiated the conference as an event in which graduate scholars “could go below the surface of their disciplines, find the connection between their lives as students and their future as scholars,” say the organizers. Dr. Lora Geriguis, associate English professor and director of the Masters in English program at La Sierra serves as faculty sponsor of the conference.

PR Contact: Larry Becker

Executive Director of University Relations

La Sierra University

Riverside, California

951.785.2460 (voice)