FOR MORE INFORMATION

CONTACT:  Jill Anderson

Jill.anderson@trinity.edu

Sept. 7, 2006

Oregon Professor of Landscape Architecture Kenneth Helphand to Present Lecture at Trinity University on Wartime Gardens

SAN ANTONIO – Kenneth Helphand, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon, will deliver a lecture based on his book, Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime, published by Trinity University Press. The lecture is free and open to the public, and it will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, in the Science Lecture Hall on the Trinity campus.

A rich history focusing on the first half of the 20th century, an era marked by the deadliest wars in human history, Defiant Gardens examines gardens built by both combatants and civilians. Gardens created during wartime are examples of what Helphand calls “defiant gardens” – gardens cultivated in extreme environmental, social, political, economic, or cultural conditions. The fact that gardens exist in these situations is remarkable, even inspiring.

Defiant Gardens examines gardens built inside and behind the trenches of the First World War, gardens built in the Warsaw and similar ghettos under the Nazis during the Second World War, gardens created by prisoners of war during both world wars, and gardens constructed by internees in the Japanese American internment camps in the United States during the Second World War. The book’s focus on gardening as a source of hope and resilience offers a unique way of understanding these dark experiences.

In this groundbreaking book, Helphand brings to light a history that has never been studied and moving stories never before told. Defiant Gardens will change the way you think about gardens.

Trinity University Press will sell copies of the book at the event, and Helphand will be available to sign copies following the lecture. The book also is available from book sellers or from Trinity University Press at 302 Coates Library or online at www.trinity.edu/tupress.

Helphand is also the author of Colorado: Visions of an American Landscape, Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel, and Yard Street Park: The Design of Suburban Open Space (coauthored with Cynthia Girling). He also served as editor of Landscape Journal from 1994 to 2002.

Helphand’s visit is sponsored by the Lecturers and Visiting Scholars Committee, Trinity University Press, and the departments of history and English.

For more information, contact Jill Anderson at the Trinity University Press, 210-999-8882 or Jill.Anderson@trinity.edu.

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© 2006 Trinity University