Lectures in Criticism: Tiya Miles on "Species Insurance: Black Women, Survival Craft, and Environmental Storytelling"

Borrowing the words of Octavia E. Butler for theoretical inspiration, this talk engages in a thought experiment. What if we were to take Harriet Tubman, one of the most famous historical figures in the U.S., and center her in an environmental story? What would we learn about Tubman herself, about Black women and families in the nineteenth century, and about the role of place and ecology in the survival of racial terror? And what connections might we draw between Black women’s environmental thinking in the multi-temporal past and the greatest challenges facing our species in the murky present and future? Tiya Miles, Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will deliver the spring 2023 talk in the Lectures in Criticism series, which was founded in 1983 and brings renowned scholars in the humanities to Boston University. Dr. Miles will be introduced by Ibram X. Kendi, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities; Professor of History; and Director, Center for Antiracist Research at BU.