PUTNEY — As part of the Academic Speakers Series “Art, Empathy and Social Change,” Landmark College will present Meg Mott, Marlboro College professor and Brattleboro Reformer columnist.
Mott will be speaking on the topic “On the Emancipation of Eagles” on Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 7 p.m.
“Less than 200 years ago, African-Americans were considered too inferior to be dignified with civil rights,” Mott says. “Not until the 1964 Civil Rights Act did Congress provide effective mechanisms for black Americans to assert their basic liberties.”
“For the last 60 years, American environmentalists have argued that we should extend rights to natural objects, such as trees, rivers, and eagles,” she says. “We'll consider the effect [that] rights have on the political imagination and what it would look like to emancipate eagles and trees from the tyranny of landowners.”
A former court advocate and paralegal, Mott explored the tensions between feminist and liberal theories while getting her doctorate in political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her dissertation considered the role of “natural law” in the Spanish Inquisition.
More recently, she has become interested in how environmental crises are challenging basic assumptions about political life.
“The local food movement is a good example,” she said. “As towns and cities become more adept at taking charge of their own food, they also become more adept at taking care of other basic needs.”
The free lecture will take place in the East Academic Building Auditorium on the Landmark College campus, 1 River Road South. The hall is universally accessible.
For more information, call 802-387-6768 or visit www.landmark.edu/about/speaker-series/index.cfm.