Upcoming events at Monmouth College

Sweet to deliver McMullen Lecture; Archaeology Lecture, final Great Decisions also on tap

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, IL (03/20/2019) —

California ecologist to speak about managing state's fires at College's McMullen Lecture

An ecologist who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will speak about wild fires in his state at this year's Donald B. McMullen Lecture in Biology at Monmouth College.

Sam Sweet, who has taught in UCSB's department of ecology, evolution and marine biology for more than 40 years, will deliver the lecture at 7 p.m. March 25 in the Pattee Auditorium of the Center for Science and Business.

Titled "Fire Management and the Future of Southern California's Sky Islands," his talk is free and open to the public.

Earlier in the day, Sweet will speak to Monmouth science students at 4 p.m. in Room 276 of the Center for Science and Business, detailing "The Origins of Sea Snakes."

"The evening talk is intended for a general audience and should be of interest to those interested in climate change and the interactions of humans, wildlife and ecosystems," said Monmouth biology professor Kevin Baldwin.

A native of Connecticut, Sweet earned his bachelor's degree from Cornell University and his master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Not afraid to be called a herpetologist, Sweet insists on conducting abundant field work and believes that understanding and preserving biodiversity is a worthy goal.

The McMullen Lectureship in Biology was endowed in 1973 by Elizabeth McMullen in memory of her husband, who was a Monmouth College biology professor from 1928-38. The fund annual brings an outstanding scholar in the biological sciences to campus.

Ottoman-era wood harvesting the topic of next Archaeology Lecture on March 26

Rather than focus on ancient events in Greece or Rome, the next Archaeology Lecture at Monmouth College will discuss a much more recent time - Ottoman Palestine in the late 19th century.

Brita Lorentzen, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University, will speak March 26 about harvesting wood in pre-industrial times in the region we know today as Israel.

Titled "Anatolian Forests on the Sea: Trees, Timber and Environment in the Ottoman Empire," Lorentzen's talk will be given at 7:30 p.m. in the Pattee Auditorium of the College's Center for Science and Business.

"Wood was a fundamental fuel resource and building material in pre-industrial societies including the Mediterranean, which made forests a valuable and politically strategic natural resource," says Lorentzen, whose lecture will discuss the environmental history of the East Mediterranean forests, focusing on Ottoman Palestine. "During this time, technological, economic and sociopolitical change in the Eastern Mediterranean led to increased building activity and demand for wood building materials, while facilitating increased access to timber-rich areas, including forested areas in southern Anatolia, the Black Sea coast and Europe."

Lorentzen has conducted research using tree-ring dating to date and source wood from Ottoman-era historical buildings and archaeological sites, as well as modern forest trees, which provide further documentation of local environmental history and enduring environmental impacts of human activity in the region.

Free and open to the public, Lorentzen's talk is sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America Western Illinois Society.

Great Decisions to conclude March 27 with discussion about populism in Europe

The final Great Decisions program of the year at Monmouth College will focus on "The Rise of Populism in Europe."

Lecturer Annie Moore, who teaches French at the College, will introduce the topic at 7:30 p.m. March 27 in Room 276 of the College's Center for Science and Business.

Mass migration, and the problems associated with it, have directly abetted the rise of populist parties in Europe. Opposition to immigration was the prime driver of support for Brexit, it brought a far-right party to the German Bundestag for the first time since the 1950s, and populism propelled Marine Le Pen to win a third of the vote in the French presidential election.

In addition to calling for stronger borders, however, these parties are invariably illiberal, anti-American, anti-NATO and pro-Kremlin, making their rise a matter of serious concern for the national security interests of the United States.

Called "America's largest discussion program on world affairs," Great Decisions is a nationwide program sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association, a non-partisan, non-governmental association that works to increase Americans' understanding of foreign policy issues.

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