The Wallace Stegner Center has a robust lineup of programs for the 2011-2012 academic year. Now in its seventeenth year, our annual symposium addresses “Silent Spring at 50: The Legacy of Rachel Carson.” The symposium will explore three aspects of Carson’s legacy: the celebration and protection of the marine world, the regulation of toxic chemicals, and Carson’s ongoing influence on the environmental movement and on women as environmentalists and scientists. We will be joined by keynote speaker Sandra Steingraber, a scientist, poet and literary writer who has furthered the conversation that Rachel Carson launched about the toxins in our environment and the author of Living Downstream, which has been made into an eponymous film.
We are honored to be joined by Lynn Scarlett, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department in the George W. Bush Administration, who will speak at the Stegner Center on November 3 as part of the Stegner Center Lecture series. Along with the Institute for Clean and Secure Energy, the Stegner Center will host an Energy Forum on September 14, featuring keynote speakers former U.S. Senator Bob Bennett and former Governor of Wyoming Dave Freudenthal. The Forum will consider how to balance priorities of regional energy demand, national energy security, economic impacts, natural resources, and climate change. On February 9, the Stegner Center will host a daylong symposium on “Electric Power in a Carbon Constrained World,” with experts from around the country who will consider the pros and cons of coal, natural gas, alternative energy, and nuclear power as sources of electricity.
Our green bag series, held during the noon hour, will feature presentations this year on a variety of topics including the ethnography of Yellowstone, biodiversity and habitat conservation, alternative transportation and land use planning for the Wasatch Front region, and other issues. Finally, we will host our seventh annual young scholar Lesley McAllister on November 14 & 15. (See the article on Professor McAllister’s upcoming visit for more information.) Please visit the Stegner Center website (www.law.utah.edu/stegner) for information on upcoming events and a link to a calendar.