The Swope Endowed Lectures invite members of the campus and local community to join us for an evening with Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of Braiding Sweetgrass. Kimmerer will deliver a lecture related to themes in Braiding Sweetgrass and more recent work entitled "Restoration and Reciprocity: Healing Relationships with the Natural World." In describing this work, Kimmerer writes:

"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."

Tickets (free to students/faculty/staff; $5 for all others) will be available starting August 1, 2024, through the Logger Store or online through the University website. The lecture will also be livestreamed at pugetsound.edu/schneebecklive.

A reception and book signing will follow in the Wheelock Student Center, Rasmussen Rotunda. 

The Logger Store is selling copies of Braided Sweetgrass, along with two other Kimmerer books, for those that would like a new copy for signing (or just want the book!).

Robin Wall Kimmerer's visit is sponsored by the Swope Endowed Lectures (named in honor of Jane Hammer Swope, Puget Sound Class of 1942), which is charged to bring guests to campus to engage our community on issues of faith, ethics, values, and religion in society. Speakers are chosen by a committee of students, faculty, and staff. For more information, please contact Swope Committee Chair Dave Wright, University Chaplain, at 253.879.3818 or dwright@pugetsound.edu.