Reading Indiana Landscapes

Event Details

In March of 2023, McCormick’s Creek State Park was hit by a tornado that knocked down many trees. But the park’s landscapes—and Indiana’s landscapes in general—have long been altered even more substantially. Logging, wetland drainage, agriculture, industry, and development have transformed the area that is now Indiana since US colonization and settlement began. This talk will focus on reading everyday landscapes for traces of historical change that can be easy to overlook. What story does a line of stones between old growth and second growth forest tell? Or a deep ditch beside a field? Following the poet Lorine Niedecker’s instruction to pay “particular attention” to natural and cultural details, we will connect our own experience of specific places with environmental and social histories. Join us after the talk for a hike led by naturalist Kody Kirby. We’ll practice reading the park’s landscapes for traces of history.

While no ticket is required, we greatly appreciate if those planning to attend let us know at kkirby1@dnr.in.gov or (812) 829-4344 to assist us in estimating how many will be in attendance.

Michelle Niemann is an academic writing coach who works with faculty in a wide variety of disciplines. As a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA, she co-edited The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities (2017) with Ursula K. Heise and Jon Christensen. She earned her PhD in literary studies at the University of Wisconsin, where William Cronon’s seminar on US environmental history shaped her understanding of how to read a landscape. She grew up in Fort Wayne and now lives in Indianapolis. Over the past seven years, she has spent time hiking slowly in state parks, nature preserves, rural areas, and the city, paying attention to both the neglected loveliness and the often wrenching devastation of Indiana landscapes.