Working Wednesday with Jane Robbins Mize, On the Muck: Zora Neale Hurston and the South Florida Swamps

This work-in-progress, excerpted from Jane Robbins Mize's dissertation, examines Zora Neale Hurston's representation of the wetlands of South Florida. In particular, they analyze two novels—Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948)—in order to explore how Hurston’s fiction participated in larger contemporaneous discussions about the drainage and development of the region’s swamps. This program welcomes feedback from those familiar with Hurston's work as well as those with knowledge about the ecologies of wetlands, histories of swamp dredging and drainage, the South Florida environment, or the environmental humanities more broadly.

Working Wednesdays is an event series designed to showcase in-progress Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) straddling theoretical and practical environmental concerns with a focus on our mid-Atlantic region. These sessions take place on Wednesdays, 12:30-1:30 sharp.

All sessions are open to the Penn community but require RSVP. Grab a lunch and join us!

Photo Source: http://www.historymiami.org/the-everglades-exploitation-conservation/