SPEAKER: Kevin Rozario Assistant Professor in the American Studies program at Smith College
ABOUT THE LECTURE: Kevin Rozario uses the two most devastating urban catastrophes in American history, the Chicago fire of 1871 and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, to explore how extraordinary recovery from sudden ruination can be both compelling and inspiring. He discusses industrialization and cultural responses to disaster, with analysis of narrative accounts of disaster as well as performative accounts that have served to reassure Americans that new and improved urban environments can come of disaster. He further explores how the "mass consumer culture" of America has shaped American responses to events of September 11th.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Kevin Rozario is Assistant Professor in the American Studies program at Smith College. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Yale University, and has previously taught at Oberlin and Wellesley colleges. This year, with the benefit of an NEH fellowship, he is working on a book entitled Nature's Evil Dreams: Disaster and the Making of Modern America. He recently published an essay "What Comes Down Must Go Up: Why Disasters have Been Good for American Capitalism" in Steven Biel, ed. American Disasters (New York University Press, 2002).
The information on this page was accurate as of the day the video was added to MIT World. This video was added to MIT World on 2002-03-14.
