The Tyson Family Lecture on the Preservation and Restoration of Southern Ecosystems, established in 2012 by Dr. George Tyson,'72, Duke '77, within the purview of the Department of Environmental Studies, is an annual lectureship devoted to issues related to the preservation, restoration and sustainability of Southern ecosystems. The speakers reflect the entire range of the multi-disciplinary approach of environmental studies and may include individuals from academia, business, industry, government, the arts or the non-profit sector.These events are free and open to the public.
7th annual Tyson Family Lecture
March 7, 2019 – 7 p.m., Leonard Auditorium, Main Building, Wofford College
“Overstory and Understory: Longleaf Pine for the Long Run”
Speaker: Janisse Ray, author of “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood”
Introductory remarks were given by Dr. George Tyson, a 1972 Wofford graduate and founder of the Tyson Family Lecture series, and John Lane, professor and director of Wofford’s Goodall Environmental Studies Center at Glendale, S.C.
Panel discussion: “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood: Three Eco-Perspectives”
2:30 p.m., Anna Todd Wofford Center, Andrews Field House
Panelists: Dr. Peter K. Brewitt, Wofford assistant professor of environmental studies; geologist, educator and editor Dorinda Dallmeyer; and poet and eco-critic Tara Powell
In 1999, Janisse Ray published “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,” soon thereafter spending a week in Spartanburg as a writer-in-residence for the Lawson’s Fork River Festival organized by the Hub City Writers Project. While she was in Spartanburg, The New York Times published a full-page profile of her, saying, “The forests of the Southeast find their Rachel Carson.” “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” since has sold 200,000 copies in various editions.
Read the news release in the Wofford Newsroom.
6th annual Tyson Family Lecture
March 22, 2018 – 7 p.m., Leonard Auditorium, Main Building, Wofford College
"Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine"
Speaker: Dr. David Shields, the McClintock Professor of Southern Letters, University of South Carolina
Shields is known for his efforts to bring back lost Southern foods such as the Bradford watermelon and the Carolina African runner peanut. At USC, he teaches courses on early American literature, Southern literature and Southern foodways. In 2016 he was awarded the Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award given by the Southern Foodways Alliance.
Read the Spartanburg Herald Journal story about Shields’ visit to Wofford.
5th Annual Tyson Family Lecture
March 23, 2017 – 7 p.m., Leonard Auditorium, Main Building, Wofford College
"Coyote: A Conversation between Dan Flores and John Lane About One of America's Most Resilient Mammals"
Speakers: Rather than a single speaker, the lectureship featured a dialogue on one of the most current topics in wildlife management as the urban-wilderness border becomes increasingly less distinct and the coyote becomes increasingly present in suburban and urban America. Dan Flores (“Coyote America: The Coyote in Continental History and Culture”) and Wofford's John Lane (“Coyote Settles the South”) discussed the increasing presence of this meso-predator among us. Both authors are widely recognized and both have been named finalists for major natural history writing awards. Flores's book is a finalist for the E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award from PEN America, and Lane’s was named a finalist as a Natural History Book of Uncommon Distinction for the John Burroughs Medal of Natural History Writing.
Read the news release in the Wofford Newsroom.
4th Annual Tyson Family Lecture
March 24, 2016 – 7 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building, Wofford College
“The Color of the Land: Sand County to Carolina Clay"
Speaker: Dr. J. Drew Lanham, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Alumni Master Teacher at Clemson University, Department of Forestry and Environmental Science
Aldo Leopold wrote that “Conservation is a state of harmony between men [people] and land.” While Leopold, a white Midwesterner came to ideas of the Land Ethic from travels in the American Southwest and in the idyll of restoring an old farm and a weekend cabin in Wisconsin, black southerners were less than 100 years removed from the bonds of chattel slavery and mired in discrimination that has ultimately lead to loss of land/nature connection. With these losses has come a lack of participation by black Americans in conservation-related occupations and activities at extraordinarily low levels. What differential hearing of the “harmony” does the southern black experience bear on conservation going forward? How do we better understand and remedy the disconnections? Personal story is the start. This lecture series addresses ethnically-hued land ethic issues visited by both Dr. Lanham’s research and creative writing, providing a forum for discussion and exchange.
Read the news release in the Wofford Newsroom.
3rd Annual Tyson Family Lecture
March 26, 2015 – 7 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building, Wofford College
"The Role of the Private Landowner in Conservation"
Speaker: Julie Moore, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, branch of the Candidate Conservation and Communication in Endangered Species Program
Read the news release in the Wofford Newsroom.
2nd Annual Tyson Family Lecture
March 6, 2014 – 7 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building, Wofford College
"Fire in the Southland: The Natural and Cultural Heritage of Woods-Fire in Southeastern North America"
Speaker: Johnny Stowe, outdoorsman, land manager and South Carolina Department of Natural Resources biologist
Ready the news release in the Wofford Newsroom.
1st Annual Tyson Family Lecture
Nov. 1, 2012 – 7 p.m., Olin Teaching Theater, Franklin W. Olin Building, Wofford College
"Longleaf in the Long Run: Restoring the South's Richest Forest"
Speaker: Rhett Johnson, founder and president emeritus of the Longleaf Alliance