Idea of Nature Lecture Series March 13

The third annual public lecture series titled “Interdisciplinary Explorations – The Idea of Nature” continues March 13 with “Emily Dickinson and Science” by Richard Brantley.

This series is inspired by the theme that big questions need interdisciplinary answers. The goal of the series is to foster the public humanities by bringing distinguished lecturers to Boise.

The lectures are free, open to the public and no tickets are required. The lectures will be held from 6-7 p.m. in the Student Union Simplot Ballroom. Each lecture will be followed by a reception with a no-host bar and appetizers. To reserve a spot at a reception, or for more information about free parking and the series, send an e-mail to samanthaharvey@boisestate.edu or visitscholarworks.boisestate.edu/ideaofnature.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) took her cue from the scientific method. “Experiment escorts us last,” she wrote. Just as her understanding of temporal and spatial change channeled geology, so her sense of the sublime consulted astronomy. Her grasp of the bald, cold truth of life’s struggle out-Darwined Darwin. Thus she thrilled and shuddered in nature’s creative and destructive presence.

Brantley is professor emeritus at the University of Florida. His works brings together philosophy, religion and literature. His essays appear in such journals as Studies in English Literature, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Studies in Romanticism, Eighteenth Century Life and Harvard Theological Review.

He is the author of Wordsworth’s “Natural Methodism” (Yale, 1975); “Locke, Wesley, and the Method of English Romanticism” (Florida, 1984); “Coordinates of Anglo-American Romanticism: Welsey, Edwards, Carlyle, and Emerson” (Florida, 1993); “Anglo-American Antiphony: The Late Romanticism of Tennyson and Emerson” (Florida, 1994); and “Experience and Faith: The Late-Romantic Imagination of Emily Dickinson” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

The lecture series continues April 24 with Susan Oliver, “Getting to the Roots of the Matter: Trees in 19th Century Literature.” Oliver is a reader in English Literature at the University of Essex in England. She specializes in late-18th-century and Romantic period literature, transatlantic studies, periodical culture and environmental writing. She also works on the more general literature and culture of the 19th century.

The British Academy awarded her the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize (2007) for “Scott, Byron and the Poetics of Cultural Encounter.” She recenlty was Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Huntington Library and has held fellowships at the University of Wyoming, the American Philosophical Society, the MLA, the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Edinburgh University and at Essex.  She is Honorary Fellow in Literary Studies in the Department of English, University of Wyoming, and a senior member of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.

The “Interdisciplinary Explorations: The Idea of Nature” public lecture series is supported by the Idaho Humanities Council, The Osher Institute of Lifelong Learning, the College of Idaho and the following units at Boise State: Arts and Humanities Institute, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs, Extended Studies, Department of English, the College of Business and Economics and the Environmental Studies Program.