Kenan Lecture Series

Mike Wurtz

"John Muir: Saunterer, Scientist, Savior"

Famed naturalist and “father of the National Parks” John Muir (1838-1914) reveled in earth’s beauty, studied how the earth worked, and strove to preserve the planet’s most “glorious” places like Yosemite. Come learn about his life’s work as told through his journals, letters, drawings, and manuscripts curated at the University of the Pacific.

Dr. Hadley Mozer

"'A queer old Spanish town’: John Muir in/on Henry Flagler’s St. Augustine"

Much has been written about John Muir’s trek across post-Civil War Florida in 1867-68, a journey recounted in A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf. But this was not Muir’s only trip to Florida. Though few people know it, Muir returned to Florida in 1898, in the twilight of the Gilded Age, spending his first night of the trip in St. Augustine and staying at Henry Flagler’s Hotel Alcazar. Come learn about Muir’s brief stay in and comments on Henry Flagler’s St. Augustine.

Stephen Petrus

Where have all the protest songs gone? They’re still with us, but political music isn’t woven into the fabric of social movements today as it was during civil rights in the 1960s.  This talk examines the integral relationship between music and politics during the era of the southern freedom struggle, focusing on Bob Dylan’s involvement in the civil rights movement. Post-1960s social movements boasted hard-hitting songs, but they never integrated collective singing like civil rights did at the grassroots level.  Individual artists or bands wrote songs with progressive lyrics and catchy melodies, but the music didn’t come from the people and wasn’t conducive to mass singing.