Robert Spiegelman, sociologist, multimedia artist and writer, will present a lecture in the Speakers in the Humanities series on Friday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. and again at noon in the Kirner-Johnson Auditorium at Hamilton. The lecture, titled "The Wild, Wild East: New York's Drama of Westward Expansion," is free and open to the public.
Spiegelman presents widely on New York, Iroquois, Irish and environmental themes. The founder of SullivanClinton.com and Derryveagh.com, he revisits hidden histories that link past and present, and foster indigenous values of peace, democracy and nature-in-balance.
New York's early frontier is America's true "Wild West." Civilization means Westward expansion, but two "obstacles" blocked the way: Indians and nature. Combining dramatic images and fresh research, Spiegelman details this forgotten New York, where settler dreams encounter native lifeways. He'll explore a "magical crossroads" where immigrants change into nomad farmers, neighbors into rivals, colonists into fighters, soldiers into settlers, land speculators into "second creators," Indian Country into military tracts named for Roman conquerors, and untamed forests into real estate grids.
The lecture revisits Syracuse and Buffalo's emergence from the ashes of attempted Indian removal and controversial land treaties that have shaped today's Empire State. It covers Manhattan's rise to prominence via the Erie Canal, which in turn, inflames a religious upheaval across Central New York that America calls "The Burnt Over District." The talk ends with an appreciation of how - against all odds - indigenous New Yorkers retain a toehold in their deforested ancestral homelands.
This Speakers in the Humanities event is made possible through the support of the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Speakers in the Humanities program has linked distinguished scholars with diverse audiences since its launch in 1983, bringing the best in humanities scholarship to thousands of people at hundreds of cultural organizations in virtually every corner of New York State.
Spiegelman presents widely on New York, Iroquois, Irish and environmental themes. The founder of SullivanClinton.com and Derryveagh.com, he revisits hidden histories that link past and present, and foster indigenous values of peace, democracy and nature-in-balance.
New York's early frontier is America's true "Wild West." Civilization means Westward expansion, but two "obstacles" blocked the way: Indians and nature. Combining dramatic images and fresh research, Spiegelman details this forgotten New York, where settler dreams encounter native lifeways. He'll explore a "magical crossroads" where immigrants change into nomad farmers, neighbors into rivals, colonists into fighters, soldiers into settlers, land speculators into "second creators," Indian Country into military tracts named for Roman conquerors, and untamed forests into real estate grids.
The lecture revisits Syracuse and Buffalo's emergence from the ashes of attempted Indian removal and controversial land treaties that have shaped today's Empire State. It covers Manhattan's rise to prominence via the Erie Canal, which in turn, inflames a religious upheaval across Central New York that America calls "The Burnt Over District." The talk ends with an appreciation of how - against all odds - indigenous New Yorkers retain a toehold in their deforested ancestral homelands.
This Speakers in the Humanities event is made possible through the support of the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Speakers in the Humanities program has linked distinguished scholars with diverse audiences since its launch in 1983, bringing the best in humanities scholarship to thousands of people at hundreds of cultural organizations in virtually every corner of New York State.
