This year, thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Bakersfield College has been focusing on how labor and energy have historically intersected with art and literature. To further explore this, the college is inviting Sarah Wald, a professor at the University of Oregon, to speak about it on campus. Wald has studied the relationship between race, citizenship, and nature in popular culture. She’ll be speaking at Bakersfield College on Thursday, October 18, at 7 p.m.
Listen to the interview above for a preview of her talk. Wald discusses how farming is commonly linked in media to certain American ideals, like being self-sustaining and entrepreneurial. She says that these representations leave out the involvement of farm laborers, who are commonly undocumented, and a necessary part of the industry.
