Given the biodiversity and climate crises, many wild species will not survive without acts of human care. What should that care look like? Can wild nature be designed? Which environmental harms are truly irreversible, and how can ecological restoration be made socially just?

Laura Martin, associate professor of Environmental Studies, is a historian and ecologist who studies how people create and govern habitat for other species. She is author of Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration. Her research on the global biodiversity crisis has been featured in The New York Times,  Nature, and The Atlantic, and she has written essays and op eds for venues including TIME, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.

This talk is presented as part of the spring 2024 Faculty Lecture Series. The series was founded in 1911 by Catherine Mariotti Pratt, the spouse of a faculty member who wanted to “relieve the tedium of long New England winters with an opportunity to hear Williams professors talk about issues that really mattered to them.” From these humble and lighthearted beginnings, the Faculty Lecture Series has grown to become an important forum for tenured professors to share their latest research with the larger intellectual community of the college.

The Faculty Lecture Series is organized by the faculty members of the Lecture Committee. The aim of the series is to present big ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries.  All lectures will begin at 4:15 p.m. and will take place in the (new) Lawrence Hall Auditorium. Enter via the main WCMA entrance or through the Art Department corridor. All talks are free and open to the public and will be recorded for posting on Williams YouTube.

DATE: Thursday, February 8

TIME: 4:15 PM – 5:30 PM

LOCATION: Lawrence Hall Auditorium, 15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Williamstown, MA 01267