KIRKBY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Kent Kirkby is a teaching professor in Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota. His interest in Earth Science was sparked at the age of seven by a friend’s gift of three plastic dinosaurs. The wisdom of this early career choice was confirmed when Kent got to spend much of his graduate education living in a mountain lion’s cave, halfway up a Chihuahuan Desert cliff with a magnificent view of western sunsets. Although originally trained as a carbonate geologist, since coming to the University of Minnesota, Kent’s activities have focused on educational research; developing and evaluating more effective teaching methods – often ones that revolve about storytelling. He is particularly fascinated by the intersection of Earth processes and human history. Consequently, while his course topics range from dinosaurs and volcanoes to invasive species and pandemic diseases, all integrate the Earth and our history. Although born in Wisconsin, after nearly thirty years at the University of Minnesota, and with the patient help of his two sons, Kent no longer tends to think of gophers as remarkably small badgers. Having been lucky enough to marry his best friend, they now share their home with three cats and a decent-sized green aluminum Brontosaurus.

From Sparta to St. Paul, the Roles Earth Processes Played in Our Past

Our history is not solely a result of human activity, but the Earth’s as well. While violent volcanic eruptions and catastrophic earthquakes highlight the Earth’s role in our past, climate change has had even greater impacts on our history. But lost in the shuffle, other less dramatic processes play important but often overlooked roles. Consequently, let’s take some time to explore the impacts of an often-unnoticed earth process that affected disparate parts of our past, from the expansion of the Greek and Roman empires, through the rise of pandemic diseases and organized crime, to past American refugee camps and recent civil unrest in downtown St. Paul. That will be the path we will follow Monday evening.