In 2012, the Presidio Trust continues its popular Contemporary Historians at the Presidio lecture series. Talks by nationally known historians cover large themes in American and world history, and put the Presidio into context as a former military post and an innovative national park.

Themed Nature and Historic Preservation Today

Featuring Kathleen Moran and Margaretta Lovell

Theme parks can be understood as a diagnostic geography—a space that can teach us about our particular commitment to “fun” at the same time that they reveal some of our basic fears of disorder, anxiety about racial “others” and the dangers of the natural world. We will examine the relationship between creating themed spaces and “preserving” spaces in California.  

Kathleen Moran is the Associate Director of the American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Her teaching and research interests include California history and social theory, film, popular culture, food studies, theme parks, and advertising. She is a recipient of UCB’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

Margaretta Lovell is the Jay D. McEvoy Professor of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include Art in a Season of Revolution: Painters, Artisans, and Patrons in Early America, and  A Visitable Past: Views of Venice by American Artists. She is currently working on a book on Fitz Hugh Lane.

Next Up:

• September 6: Quintard Taylor - The Racial Integration of the United States Army: From World War II to the War in Afghanistan
  
• October 25: Jay Winter - Filming War
  
• November 15: K. Scott Wong - Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War