Mar. 4 Lecture Series: Lane Fargher

DATE:                 Friday, March 4
TIME:                 4:00-5:00pm
LOCATION:      352 Academic Center

Nearly 100 years ago, the human geographer Carl Sauer introduced the concept and research framework of landscape, which offers a crucial point of articulation between human behavior and the environment with broad implications across multiple disciplines, but especially as a pathway for delineating and conducting inter/transdisciplinary research. My application of landscape reaches well beyond its traditional applications, demonstrating its expandability and resilience as an intellectual bulwark.

In this presentation, I demonstrate this using three research projects: 1) the Tlaxcallan Archaeological Project; 2) Sources and Distribution of Organic Matter Along the Ring of Cenotes; and 3) Enduring Legacies of Human-Induced Landscape Transformation in Lagunas de Yalahau. These projects leveraged the landscape concept to investigate the articulation of collective political strategies with an urban landscape, Maya land management strategies known as Kanan K’aax with long-term environmental change, and contemporary economic and settlement patterns with the contamination of a karstic aquifer.

Again and again, across a range of research questions and academic disciplines, landscape has proven to be incredibly effective for stimulating collaborations among researchers, understanding the material consequences of human behavior, and confronting real-world problems.