BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Lewis & Clark//NONSGML v1.0//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20090308T100000 RDATE:20090308T100000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:STANDARD TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20091101T090000 RDATE:20091101T090000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091005T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091005T180000 LOCATION:Miller 105 SUMMARY:The Exquisite Corpse and Korea's DMZ: 10/5 DESCRIPTION:The Exquisite Corpse and Korea's DMZMonday\, October 55:00 PM Miller 105 \;In 1925\, Surrealists invented a parlor game they called "the exquisite corpse." Each player added an element to a drawing withou t being able to see what others had drawn. The result was a concoction of random additions. With luck\, the result could be startlingly beautiful. \; The beauty and biological diversity of Korea's DMZ are the result of the same sort of contingency that created the Surrealists' "exquisite corpse." The question is whether the DMZ\, through the conjunction of no n-human and human players\, will continue to be an exquisite corpse\, a d ead zone that is in fact alive with beauty\, or whether it will become we ll and truly dead. The same question\, I argue\, also applies to the disc ipline of history as it confronts the challenge posed by incorporating en vironmental factors into our narratives of the past.In other words\, the biodiversity flourishing in Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) will be pres erved\, if it is preserved\, by a fortuitous convergence of forces. \ ; \;My talk will \;explore the unlikely conjunction of people–i ncluding a Korean-Japanese scientist\, crane enthusiasts\, Swiss Peace ke epers\, and business mogul Ted Turner–who seek to protect unusual speci es–like the goat-antelope\, the bean goose\, the Korean magpie viper– in a scarred landscape created by a series of political mistakes and the stroke of a pen across a line of latitude. On all levels\, oddities aboun d. \; My interest lies not only in the ecological\, political\, and e nvironmental forces at work on this thin strip of land\, but also in what the random and contingent nature of the history here tells us about hist ory itself. My paper moves from the fauna and flora of the DMZ to the peo ple who are working to protect this "treasure house of ecosystems\," to\, finally\, a consideration of how studying the environment and environmen tal protection changes the historian's craft. The salvation of endangered species is sometimes the result of the concerted actions of one or two a gents\, but in many cases–indeed\, it seems most–it is merely acciden tal. This accidental quality in the case of the DMZ \;is what \;l eads me to consider the nature of history itself and our ideas about agen cy\, narrative\, and meaning.Julia Thomas\, Associate professor of Histor y at Notre Dame\, won the American Historical Association's prestigious J ohn K. Fairbank prize in 2003 for her bookReconfiguring Modernity: Concep ts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology (http://www.amazon.com/Reconf iguring-Modernity-Concepts-Japanese-Political/dp/0520228545/ref=sr_1_1?ie =UTF8&\;s=books&\;qid=1253551603&\;sr=8-1). X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
Monday\, October 5
5:00 PM< /p>
Miller 105 \;
In 1925\ , Surrealists invented a parlor game they called "the exquisite corpse." Each player added an element to a drawing without being able to see what others had drawn. The result was a concoction of random additions. With l uck\, the result could be startlingly beautiful. \; The beauty and bi ological diversity of Korea's DMZ are the result of the same sort of cont ingency that created the Surrealists' "exquisite corpse." The question is whether the DMZ\, through the conjunction of non-human and human players \, will continue to be an exquisite corpse\, a dead zone that is in fact alive with beauty\, or whether it will become well and truly dead. The sa me question\, I argue\, also applies to the discipline of history as it c onfronts the challenge posed by incorporating environmental factors into our narratives of the past.
In other words\, the biodiversity flourishing in Korea
's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) will be preserved\, if it is preserved\, by a
fortuitous convergence of forces. \; \;My talk will \;
explore the unlikely conjunction of people–including a Korean-Ja
panese scientist\, crane enthusiasts\, Swiss Peace keepers\, and business
mogul Ted Turner–who seek to protect unusual species–like the goat-a
ntelope\, the bean goose\, the Korean magpie viper–in a scarred landsca
pe created by a series of political mistakes and the stroke of a pen acro
ss a line of latitude. On all levels\, oddities abound. \; My interes
t lies not only in the ecological\, political\, and environmental forces
at work on this thin strip of land\, but also in what the random and cont
ingent nature of the history here tells us about history itself. My paper
moves from the fauna and flora of the DMZ to the people who are working
to protect this "treasure house of ecosystems\," to\, finally\, a conside
ration of how studying the environment and environmental protection chang
es the historian's craft. The salvation of endangered species is sometime
s the result of the concerted actions of one or two agents\, but in many
cases–indeed\, it seems most–it is merely accidental. This accidental
quality in the case of the DMZ \;is what \;leads me
to consider the nature of history itself and our ideas about agency\, na
rrative\, and meaning.
Julia Thomas\
, Associate professor of History at Notre Dame\, won the American Histori
cal Association's prestigious John K. Fairbank prize in 2003 for her book
Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Jap
anese Political Ideology.