Time Journey in Western KY: MSU professors talk about monitoring historical past via images and nature

Two Murray State University professors teamed up on a venture to showcase how images archives can be utilized to spotlight adjustments to landscapes and areas over time, with a deal with how each nature – whether or not via pure catastrophe or evolution – and human works can affect these locations. Professor of images Cintia Segovia Figueroa and professor of biology Kate He have labored collectively on this venture since final fall and hope to generate dialogue at a lecture on Thursday about local weather change, conservation, and cultural historical past.

They are presenting “Shifting Landscapes: A Photographic Chronicle of Humanity and Nature in western Kentucky” this week as a part of the college’s Humanities+ lecture collection, funded by the Kentucky Art Council and the Kentucky Historical Society.

Segovia Figueroa stated historical past isn’t simply present in books: it may also be informed via geography and the documentation of it.

He, the biology professor, stated that nature images can seize snapshots of landscapes, for instance, and present the way it adjustments over time or after occasions like pure disasters.

“Any change captured by our camera can effectively reflect anthropocentric impact on the landscape, just like the winter storms we had back in 2009 and 2022, and the photo I took for those events captured the icy environment,” stated He. “The trees were falling down and people’s lives were impacted. So we tried to go back to space in time, and just to show people how climate change can affect daily lives in the area.”

He stated she was significantly drawn to capturing the biodiversity of an space via her images to point out the connection between bugs and nature.

“I captured many species, plants, birds, the flowers, nature and environment. For example, the scenery from Lake Barkley, the Hematite Lake, the surrounding area, they really present the beauty of nature, and most importantly, they provide ecosystem services to the area. So it’s our duty to protect biodiversity for the region for a long time to come,” He stated. “Because of climate change a lot of pollinator populations declined in recent years. So capturing the mutually beneficial relationship between bees, flowers, butterflies and different kinds of species, that’s really rewarding as a biologist like me.”

Segovia Figueroa stated the panorama has been documented over time and their analysis took them to the college’s Pogue Library.

“Part of my research was to go to the Pogue Library and look at photographs and how even more downtown Murray has changed and other parts look the same,” Segovia Figueroa stated. “A lot of our research was thinking about how these changes often are man-made, and other times they are just the climate change. For example the tobacco industry has changed. So having the comparison between a local family that was working the land and now having like immigrant workers working the tobacco fields is very different.”

Segovia Figueroa and He’s lecture on their venture, , occurring as a part of Murray State’s Humanities+ collection, might be on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Faculty Hall room 208 on the principle campus of Murray State University. It is free and open to the general public.