12 - 1:30 p.m. PST
The CAHSS Advancement Committee warmly invites the Stan State community to join us for an exciting series of faculty presentations showcasing recent scholarly research and creative activities throughout the 2024/2025 academic year!
What to Expect: Each forum will feature two dynamic presentations on a wide range of topics, followed by an engaging Q&A session. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the innovative work being done by our faculty and to participate in lively discussions.
Presentation Format:
- Length: 15-20 minutes for each presentation
- Followed by: 10 minutes for audience questions
Can't make it in-person? Attend presentation through Zoom.
Dr. Keith Nainby, Communication Studies
Discussing his new publication: Examining Blank Spaces and the Taylor Swift Phenomenon.
Presentation
I’ll describe how Taylor Swift’s primary songwriting focus is on our reflections on our own evolving, (re)created personal identities. These evolving identities, in Swift songs, are grounded in relationships with others and are poetically evoked. I’ll highlight how working with identity development helps account for the noteworthy fervor of Swifties given the role that popular music plays in young people’s evolving sense of themselves.
Bio
Dr. Keith Nainby, Professor of Communication Studies, teaches in the areas of communication pedagogy, gender, and performance. He has several publications on Bob Dylan, including one book, five book chapters (one forthcoming), and one journal article. This is his first publication on Taylor Swift, and one additional book chapter on Swift is forthcoming.
Dr. Philip Garone, History Department
Destruction and Restoration of Terminal Lakes in the Western Great Basin: The Case of Walker Lake, Nevada
Presentation
This presentation will highlight my current research on terminal lakes (those without a natural outlet) in the Great Basin, focusing on Walker Lake in western Nevada. These lakes have existed since the Pleistocene and have supported Native peoples for more than ten thousand years. When Euro-American settlers arrived in the nineteenth century, they began agricultural diversions of the rivers that supplied the lakes, causing significant declines in lake area and volume, and extirpating their native fish species and damaging their food webs. Late twentieth century conservation legislation provided a novel means to acquire water rights to save Walker Lake and reverse its ecological destruction. The Walker Lake story offers a model for restoration of endangered lake ecosystems throughout the West.
Bio
Dr. Phil Garone, Professor of History at Stanislaus State, teaches environmental, Western, California, and climate history, and his research focuses on water issues in both California and the Great Basin. His first book, published in 2011, is titled The Fall and Rise of the Wetlands of California’s Great Central Valley. He has completed an environmental history of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for the California Delta Protection Commission and has published articles on long-term drought and climate change in California, and the management of U.S. public lands. He is currently working on a book project about the ecological and human history of the terminal lakes of the western Great Basin.