GENESEO, N.Y. — Gillen D’Arcy Wood, professor of environmental humanities at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will deliver the 14th Annual American Rock Salt Lecture April 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Newton Hall 202. The lecture, titled “Frankenstein’s Weather: The Year Without a Summer, 1816,” is free and open to the public.
The lecture is based on Wood’s award-winning book, “Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World,” the first book to present a comprehensive investigation of the environmental calamity of 1816, when a massive eruption of Mount Tambora occurred in Indonesia. That year became known as the “Year Without a Summer” as volcanic conditions disrupted monsoons in India that contributed to a devastating new strain of cholera, while crop failure and famine crippled nations from China to Western Europe to New England, precipitating food riots and the mass emigration of refugees.
The extreme weather crisis also made waves in the world of art and literature, with Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” the most notable work of imagination to emerge from “The Year Without a Summer.”
Wood’s book provides a gripping disaster narrative with important lessons not only for historians and students but also for local communities and governments tasked with responding to today’s climate crisis.
The SUNY Geneseo Department of Geological Sciences has been partners with the American Rock Salt Company LLC since 2003, as the first American Rock Salt Lecture on geology was held in 2004. Through the partnership, the company offers its support to Geneseo not only through the annual lecture, but also through undergraduate research and an undergraduate internship, where Geneseo students can intern at American Rock Salt and tour the extensive mine.
Media Contact:
David Irwin
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(585) 245-5529
Irwin@geneseo.edu