Today: Coll Thrush to Present "Imagining Urban Indigenous Landscapes - Thoughts from Seattle, Vancouver and London"

The Huxley College Speaker Series at Western Washington University will host Coll Thrush of the University of British Columbia at 3 p.m. today, Nov. 13, in Western's Communications Facility Room 125.

Thrush will present "Imagining Urban Indigenous Landscapes - Thoughts from Seattle, Vancouver, and London." This presentation is free and open to the public.

Thrush was raised in the Puget Sound region and is a graduate of Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. He is an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where he teaches indigenous, environmental, cultural, and world history. He also serves on UBC’s research ethics board and on the Faculty of Arts Aboriginal Advisory Committee. He is the author of “Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place,” which won the 2007 Washington State Book Award for History and Biography; and co-editor of “Phantom Pasts, Indigenous Presence: Native American Ghosts and Hauntings in North American History and Culture,” forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press.

He has also been published on Northwest Coast topics ranging from seismology to food, and is currently involved in two large research projects: an interdisciplinary collaboration examining the environmental history of the Strait of Georgia; and a history of London, England, framed through the experiences of indigenous visitors from Canada, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. In his free time, Coll is an avid musician, performing with Katari Taiko, Canada’s oldest Japanese drumming ensemble.

Anyone interested in these issues is encouraged to come and participate. The presentation will examine opportunities for addressing these issues and include a question and answer period. The speaker series is held by Western's Huxley College of the Environment to bring together the environmental studies/ science community and other interested members of the WWU and Bellingham communities. Speakers address topics of contemporary environmental concern in the region and the world.

WWU’s Huxley College of the Environment is one of the oldest environmental colleges in the nation and a recognized national leader in producing the next generation of environmental stewards. The College’s academic programs reflect a broad view of the physical, biological, social and cultural world.  This innovative and interdisciplinary approach makes Huxley unique. The College has earned international recognition for the quality of its programs.

For more information, please contact David Rossiter, Huxley College of the Environment, (360) 650-3603.