(Courtesy: imagejournal.org)
Green Week keynote speaker Linda Hogan will discuss many of the environmental problems facing the world 7 p.m. Thursday in the Overby Center Auditorium .
Hogan’s speech, “Speaking Earth,” is a part of the University’s Green Week, led by the Office of Sustainability to promote a more environmentally-conscious atmosphere.
Anne McCauley, director of the Office of Sustainability said Hogan’s speech will apply to all students.
“Sustainability is relevant to every single one of us, and there is always something one can do to live a life less harmful to the environment and more beneficial to people around us,” McCauley said. “Green Week attempts to bring these concepts and issues to life, to raise questions, to provide meaning and pique curiosity.”
Hogan, a Native American writer, focuses heavily on environmental issues throughout her variety of works, as well as how that impacts indigenous culture. She is internationally acclaimed and her awards are too numerous to list. Most recently, Hogan was honored as this year’s recipient of the PEN Henry David Thoreau Prize for Nature Writing, an award given each year to a writer exemplifying excellence in environmental writing.
“Her work is considered canon for contemporary environmental and Native American poetry,” Kendall McDonald, a baccalaureate fellow in the Office of Sustainability, said. “Her appearance at the University of Mississippi is significant in that it brings a unique perspective of the role played by art, culture and spirituality in environmental issues, particularly in this region which has a deep and complex native history.”
Green Week provides an opportunity to get educated on problems that are pressing in both politics as well as pop culture.
“For students, Linda Hogan can help contextualize the social aspect of the environmental problems we face today,” McDonald said. “Her knowledge and passion for tribal policy and history will help forge a vital connection between such social justice issues and the environment.”
Hogan’s speech promises to prompt an interesting discussion, placing much-needed emphasis on the state of our own campus environment, according to McCauley.
“Sustainability relates to everything that we do and practically all subjects students learn in the classroom,” McCauley said. “The issues we are facing today are quite serious and deserve attention; being a part of the solution can be uplifting and empowering.”
Hogan’s speech could not come at a more poignant time Ann Fisher-Wirth, director of the Environmental Studies minor, said.
“There are no more urgent issues than these, and I encourage all students to participate and learn,” Fisher-Wirth said on the the importance of the education of the state of our environment.
Hogan’s speech is free to the public and her books will be available for purchase afterwards.
