Jardetzky Lecture

The Engel-Morgan-Jardetzky Distinguished Lecture on Science, Culture and Ethics

Established to commemorate the spirit of the fund raising initiative by Austin George (Jim) and Mary Roessel Engel, Robert A. Morgan and their fellow Macalester students that in 1949 created Macalester’s Displaced Person Scholarship and brought Oleg Jardetzky to Macalester and the United States.

 2021 Jardetzky Lecture 

Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, this year’s Jardetzky speaker, co-sponsored by the Biology, Environmental Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Departments along with the Department of Multicultural Life and the Sustainability Office.

“Restoration and Reciprocity”

Ecological restoration  can be understood as an act of reciprocity, in return for the gifts of the earth. This talk explores the ecological and ethical imperatives of healing the damage we have inflicted on our land and waters. We trace the evolution of  restoration philosophy and practice and consider how integration of indigenous knowledge can expand our understanding of restoration from the biophysical to the biocultural. Reciprocal restoration  includes not only healing the land, but our relationship to land. In healing the land, we are healing ourselves.