October 2019
How Atlanta's Pipes Got Their Shapes: A Century-Long Evolution of Water and Sewer Infrastructure
City of Atlanta, Department of Watershed Management, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta’s history is above all a story of pipes. The city’s historical growth has hinged on the ability of city officials to provide residents with vital wastewater and drinking water services, while managing sporadic but often devastating flooding. Compounding this challenge has been the small size of the Chattahoochee watershed, which ensured that municipal infrastructure would play a key role in determining whether Atlanta could ever become a major metropolitan area. This talk will review how Atlanta officials have worked to provide residents with needed services for more than a century, how Atlanta’s urban water infrastructure evolved in response to the constraints of nature and needs of city residents, and how this infrastructure has been a flashpoint for communities with competing visions for the future of Atlanta.
How Atlanta's Pipes Got Their Shapes: A Century-Long Evolution of Water and Sewer Infrastructure
City of Atlanta, Department of Watershed Management, Atlanta, GA
Atlanta’s history is above all a story of pipes. The city’s historical growth has hinged on the ability of city officials to provide residents with vital wastewater and drinking water services, while managing sporadic but often devastating flooding. Compounding this challenge has been the small size of the Chattahoochee watershed, which ensured that municipal infrastructure would play a key role in determining whether Atlanta could ever become a major metropolitan area. This talk will review how Atlanta officials have worked to provide residents with needed services for more than a century, how Atlanta’s urban water infrastructure evolved in response to the constraints of nature and needs of city residents, and how this infrastructure has been a flashpoint for communities with competing visions for the future of Atlanta.
INVITED TALKS
August 2019
Discussion of The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South
FoxTale Book Shoppe, Woodstock, GA 30188
July 2019
Georgia's Waterways: The Flow of History
Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership, Albany, GA
2018
Discussion of The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South
Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, GA
2018
Sustainability with a Southern Twang: Lessons from the South's First Attempt at Sustainable Development
The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business/Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
2018
Theodore Roosevelt and the Age of Excess
The Learning Center, Savannah, GA
2018
Discussion of The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South
Atlanta Authors Series, SUGA, Tucker, GA
2018
Georgia's Waterways: The Flow of History
Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership
2018
Charles E. Fraser: The First Green Developer?
Discovery Lecture Series, Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, SC
2018
The Savannah: The Story of a River and Its City
The Learning Center, Savannah, GA
2017
Rooting Ecotourism in Southern Soil: The First Generation of 'Green' Developers
Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South (CHASES) at Mississippi State University
2017
Georgia's Waterways: The Flow of History
Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership
2017
Hilton Head Goes to Earth Day: Protecting 'Nature's Showpiece" in the Lowcountry
Discovery Lecture Series, Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
2016
A Century of America's National Parks
Seminar series for the Atlanta public hosted by the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University
2016
Do not "uglify" the earth: Tourism and American Environmental Politics
Furman University, Greenville, SC
2015
John Muir and Wilderness in Modern Georgia
Seminar series for the Atlanta public hosted by the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University and Georgia Humanities
2015
Constructive and not Destructive Development: The Struggle for 'Permanent' Uses of Resources in the South"
The Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University
2014
Giving "Wise Use" a Southern Twang: Reshaping Conservation for a Developing Region
The University of Delaware
Discussion of The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South
FoxTale Book Shoppe, Woodstock, GA 30188
July 2019
Georgia's Waterways: The Flow of History
Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership, Albany, GA
2018
Discussion of The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South
Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, GA
2018
Sustainability with a Southern Twang: Lessons from the South's First Attempt at Sustainable Development
The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business/Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
2018
Theodore Roosevelt and the Age of Excess
The Learning Center, Savannah, GA
2018
Discussion of The Price of Permanence: Nature and Business in the New South
Atlanta Authors Series, SUGA, Tucker, GA
2018
Georgia's Waterways: The Flow of History
Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership
2018
Charles E. Fraser: The First Green Developer?
Discovery Lecture Series, Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, SC
2018
The Savannah: The Story of a River and Its City
The Learning Center, Savannah, GA
2017
Rooting Ecotourism in Southern Soil: The First Generation of 'Green' Developers
Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South (CHASES) at Mississippi State University
2017
Georgia's Waterways: The Flow of History
Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership
2017
Hilton Head Goes to Earth Day: Protecting 'Nature's Showpiece" in the Lowcountry
Discovery Lecture Series, Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
2016
A Century of America's National Parks
Seminar series for the Atlanta public hosted by the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University
2016
Do not "uglify" the earth: Tourism and American Environmental Politics
Furman University, Greenville, SC
2015
John Muir and Wilderness in Modern Georgia
Seminar series for the Atlanta public hosted by the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University and Georgia Humanities
2015
Constructive and not Destructive Development: The Struggle for 'Permanent' Uses of Resources in the South"
The Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, Emory University
2014
Giving "Wise Use" a Southern Twang: Reshaping Conservation for a Developing Region
The University of Delaware
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2019
"How to Get to Zero: A Multi-State Comparison of Zero Energy Ready Homes"
Getting to Zero Forum, Oakland, CA
2019
"Greening Racial Justice: Lessons from a Century-Long Struggle over Atlanta’s Proctor Creek"
Atlanta Studies Symposium, Atlanta, GA
2018
"The Real Cost of Affordable Housing: Coping with the South's High Energy Burdens"
Southern Conference on Homelessness and Housing, Orange Beach, AL
2018
"The Environmental and Social Permanence of Tourism at the Height of Jim Crow"
Southern Labor Studies Association, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2018
"Green Tourism and Environmental Justice on the Carolina Sea Islands"
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting, Riverside, CA
2017
"Resorting to Nature?: 'Green' Developers and American Environmental Politics"
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting
2015
"Manufacturing 'Permanent' Landscapes in the Developing South"
Manufacturing Landscapes--Nature and Technology in Environmental History
Co-Sponsored by The Rachel Carson Center and Renmin University of China
2015
"Hobby Farming Tourists and Working Rural Landscapes in the New South"
Agricultural History Society Annual Meeting
2014
"Corporate Conservation and Conflict: Determining the Ideal Forms of Development in the American South"
Green Capitalism: Exploring the Crossroads of Environmental and Business History - Hosted by the Hagley Library and Museum, Wilmington, DE
2014
“'Permanent' Growth and Environmental Degradation in a Developing Region"
Cornell Conference on the Histories of American Capitalism - Hosted by Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2014
"Building a More 'Permanent' South"
Symposium on Southern Environmental History - Hosted by the Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South (CHASES) at Mississippi State University
2013
“’Nature’s Bounty’: Competing Visions of Economic Development in the New South” (panel organizer)
American Historical Association Annual Meeting
2011
“Touring the New South Creed: Southern Railroads as Tourist Boosters” (panel co-organizer)
Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting
2011
Commentator for panel: "Southern Landscapes, Southern Bodies: Freedom and the Environment"
Landscapes of Freedom: Freedom Struggles During the Long Nineteenth Century - Hosted by the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State
2010
“’Ecology Emotion’: The Fight Against Industrial Pollution and Environmentalism in Beaufort, South Carolina, 1969-1970” (panel organizer)
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting
2009
“’The Strength of the Scup Ticket’: The Politics of Fishery Regulation in Rhode Island, 1870-1872”
North Atlantic Fisheries History Association Annual Meeting
"How to Get to Zero: A Multi-State Comparison of Zero Energy Ready Homes"
Getting to Zero Forum, Oakland, CA
2019
"Greening Racial Justice: Lessons from a Century-Long Struggle over Atlanta’s Proctor Creek"
Atlanta Studies Symposium, Atlanta, GA
2018
"The Real Cost of Affordable Housing: Coping with the South's High Energy Burdens"
Southern Conference on Homelessness and Housing, Orange Beach, AL
2018
"The Environmental and Social Permanence of Tourism at the Height of Jim Crow"
Southern Labor Studies Association, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
2018
"Green Tourism and Environmental Justice on the Carolina Sea Islands"
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting, Riverside, CA
2017
"Resorting to Nature?: 'Green' Developers and American Environmental Politics"
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting
2015
"Manufacturing 'Permanent' Landscapes in the Developing South"
Manufacturing Landscapes--Nature and Technology in Environmental History
Co-Sponsored by The Rachel Carson Center and Renmin University of China
2015
"Hobby Farming Tourists and Working Rural Landscapes in the New South"
Agricultural History Society Annual Meeting
2014
"Corporate Conservation and Conflict: Determining the Ideal Forms of Development in the American South"
Green Capitalism: Exploring the Crossroads of Environmental and Business History - Hosted by the Hagley Library and Museum, Wilmington, DE
2014
“'Permanent' Growth and Environmental Degradation in a Developing Region"
Cornell Conference on the Histories of American Capitalism - Hosted by Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2014
"Building a More 'Permanent' South"
Symposium on Southern Environmental History - Hosted by the Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South (CHASES) at Mississippi State University
2013
“’Nature’s Bounty’: Competing Visions of Economic Development in the New South” (panel organizer)
American Historical Association Annual Meeting
2011
“Touring the New South Creed: Southern Railroads as Tourist Boosters” (panel co-organizer)
Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting
2011
Commentator for panel: "Southern Landscapes, Southern Bodies: Freedom and the Environment"
Landscapes of Freedom: Freedom Struggles During the Long Nineteenth Century - Hosted by the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State
2010
“’Ecology Emotion’: The Fight Against Industrial Pollution and Environmentalism in Beaufort, South Carolina, 1969-1970” (panel organizer)
American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting
2009
“’The Strength of the Scup Ticket’: The Politics of Fishery Regulation in Rhode Island, 1870-1872”
North Atlantic Fisheries History Association Annual Meeting