Stuckeman professor to talk conservation of nature and culture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Larry Gorenflo, professor of landscape architecture and geography (courtesy appointment) and the Stuckeman Chair in Design, is presenting a lecture titled “Linguistic and Biological Diversity in High Visibility Landscapes: Opportunities for Conserving Nature and Culture“ at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium. The lecture is part of the School’s Lecture and Exhibit Series. Gorenflo, who also oversees the intercollege minor in environmental inquiry at Penn State, is internationally recognized for research that seeks opportunities for integrative conservation efforts. His research interests focus on how people adapt to their natural and cultural surroundings, in both present and past contexts and at scales usually ranging from landscapes to regions. Much of this work involves how people use geographic space. Currently, Gorenflo is conducting research on the co-occurrence of globally Important natural landscapes and Indigenous languages to identify opportunities to conserve both biological and cultural diversity. His lecture on Wednesday examines indigenous presence on United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Natural World Heritage Sites, focusing on global inquiries well as studies of particularly challenging conservation settings in Australia and Africa. High levels of co-occurrence present opportunities to integrate indigenous people into the conservation of nature through reserve design and management to maintain the human ecological presence that helped create these high visibility natural landscapes in the first place. Learn more about Gorenflo.