Christopher Morris illuminates the interaction between people and the landscape in the Mississippi Valley showing how centuries of deforestation, swamp drainage, and levee construction led to drought, disease, and severe flooding. Valley residents have been paying the price for these human interventions, most visibly with the disaster that followed Hurricane Katrina. Morris describes how people have struggled to reinvigorate the valley environment in recent years with the burgeoning catfish and crawfish industries so that they may once again live off its natural abundance.

Christopher Morris is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of Becoming Southern: The Evolution of a Way of Life, Vicksburg and Warren County, Mississippi, 1770-1860.

His lecture is free and open to the public. A booksigning and reception will follow.