From Gentrification to Geomorphology: Geography in the Golden State

California is a geographic wonderland and physical geographers have long shown how forces from faulting and fires to food have forged the Golden State. Likewise, cultural geographers have uncovered how the landscape of the Beautiful and the Dam(m/n)ed exposes The Lie of the Land and renders hollow Agrarian Dreams. Following this tradition, the talk will use the geographer’s toolbox to examine the production of landscape and will offer a broad understanding of the field as “earth-writing” to help understand emergent geographies of California �"especially the imagination envisioned in the California Dream. Framed in terms of current events and iconic images, the discussion will interpret examples of geographic vulnerability and displacement forces in the widest senses �"from gentrification to geomorphology.

Speaker: Dr. Adam Levy, Ohlone College