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CER Lunchtime Lectures: Geography of Rivers – Morphology, Ecology, and Culture
December 23 @ 5:39 am
AWU-CER Lunchtime Lectures Twice Each Month
NOW at Doughherty Art Center and City Hall
CER's Lunchtime Lectures (pdf) are now held the second Wednesday of every month at Dougherty Art Center, 1110 Barton Springs Road and the same lecture is repeated each month on a Wednesday at City Hall (see schedule below), Boards and Commissions, Room 1101.
Lectures start at 12:00 p.m. They are free and open to the public, so bring your lunch and learn!
View presentations from previous Lunchtime Lectures
2013 The Geography of Rivers: Morphology, Ecology, and Culture
2013 is the tenth year of CER Lunchtime Lectures, and, as I did last year with natural history, the 2013 lectures will all focus on one topic and unfold like a course. The 2013 Lunchtime Lectures will explore the geography of rivers. The metaphor of the “round river” which flows back into itself provides the structure of the lectures. We begin with the mythical, metaphorical river which runs so deeply in human culture and specifically in American culture. We next explore the physical geography and ecology of rivers as fluvial systems and terrestrial habitats. The last part of the year returns us to culture as we look at human impacts on American rivers which have transformed the landscapes of American rivers into cultural landscapes shaped both by humans and nature.
And so, join me for a river journey in 2013 as we explore the Geography of Rivers.
River Systems – May to August
Rivers write their way across the surface of the Earth, inscribing deeply or shallowly depending on how resistant the surface is to the flow of water and sediment carried by the river. This morphology of the physical geography of the Earth is the starting point for geography, but a geographer must go beyond the physical shapes and shaping of rivers in order to fully understand them. The living river begins with the geochemistry of flowing water which merges with the biochemistry of aquatic organisms and then further merges with the terrestrial ecology of organisms living along the river’s riparian and bottomland zones.
May 8 at Dougherty Arts Center – River Process: the Fluvial System and River Hydrology
May 15 at City Hall – River Process: the Fluvial System and River Hydrology
June 12 at Dougherty Arts Center – River Life: the Ecology of Flowing Water
June 19 at City Hall – River Life: the Ecology of Flowing Water
July 10 at Dougherty Arts Center – Riparia: Life at the River’s Edge
July 17 at City Hall – Riparia: Life at the River’s Edge
August 14 at Dougherty Arts Center – Bottomland: Floodplain Habitats
August 21 at City Hall – Bottomland: Floodplain Habitats
Rivers of Culture – September to December
The keystone organisms that impact all aspects of river systems are humans, who settle along rivers and transform hydrology and ecology as we turn natural landscapes into cultural landscapes.
September 11 at Dougherty Arts Center – Rivers of Empire: American Rivers
September 18 at City Hall – Rivers of Empire: American Rivers
October 9 at Dougherty Arts Center – Waters the Land: Texas Rivers
October 16 at City Hall – Waters the Land: Texas Rivers
November 13 at Dougherty Arts Center – Another Colorado: Rivertown Austin
November 20 at City Hall – Another Colorado: Rivertown Austin
December 11 at Dougherty Arts Center – Goodbye to the River: A Summary
December 18 at City Hall – Goodbye to the River: A Summary
AWU-CER Coordinator – Kevin M. Anderson is a geographer and philosopher who coordinates the Center for Environmental Research. Kevin has studied at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania (BA), Durham University in England, and Ohio University, where he earned his masters degree and taught philosophy and symbolic logic for several years. He received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin with a dissertation entitled Marginal Nature: Urban Wastelands and the Geography of Nature. His research interests include soil ecology and sustainable agriculture, urban ecology and sustainability, riparian ecology, environmental philosophy and literature. He is a co-founder of the Texas Riparian Association, which supports and promotes the health of Texas river banks.
Please email Kevin Anderson if you have any questions about Lunchtime Lectures or the Center for Environmental Research.