Kevin Mason, associate professor of history at Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa, will present “Toward Understanding Indigenous Iowa: Public Memory, Environmental Methodology, and Putting the Past in Perspective” from 7-8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25, in the Boat/Moore rooms of Maytag Student Center.
The presentation is part of the 2021-22 Central Lecture Series with a focus on responsible citizenship and is open to the public.
Mason will guide a discussion to help Iowans better understand its own past and create a more inclusive and complex historical narrative. He will examine public memory, especially as it relates to specific Indigenous leaders like Black Hawk, Wapello and Inkpaduta.
Mason is a rural and environmental historian by specialization, focused on the American Midwest during the 19th and 20th centuries. His doctoral research focused on environmental change in northern Iowa during the years preceding the Wahpekute Dakota leader Inkpaduta’s attack on the Spirit Lake settlement in 1857. He also has researched rural flight and development of industry in rural spaces.
