California State University, NorthridgeCalifornia State University, Northridge
August 1, 1996
Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
Director of News and Information,
(818) 677-2130
cchandler@exec.csun.edu
The Southern California Environment and History Conference will take place from Sept. 20 to Sept. 22 and will focus on "Southern California before 1900: Landscape, Climate and Ecology."
The conference will feature panel discussions and environmental exhibitions, including presentations of research across disciplinary boundaries to foster an exchange of ideas.
Seismologists will talk about ancient earthquakes, paleoclimatologists about epic-droughts, and historians will discuss their work on Native American utilization of various water systems.
Archival and database exhibits will provide images of the Southern California landscape through time. Several artists have also been invited to present aspects of their own work as it relates to the conference theme.
The meeting will showcase controversial research findings about the impact of mega-droughts which in some cases may have lasted 300 years. Some of this research has never been presented to the public.
Co-chair of this year's conference is urban theorist and historian Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz, a history of the development of the Los Angeles area. The keynote speaker on the evening of Sept. 20 will be Deputy Secretary of the Interior John Garamendi.
The conference planners represent 23 colleges and universities throughout Southern California, as well as the state Department of Parks and Recreation. The Huntington Library and the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities have helped put the conference together.
Public registration for the three-day event is $20. Students with identification will be admitted free. For more information, contact conference coordinator Lorna Fenenbock via telephone at (818) 677-3532; via fax at (818) 677-2723; or via email at environmental.history@csun.edu.