Friday, March 15th
3:30 pm
255 Old Horticulture
This Friday, Daniel Macfarlane will be giving a talk titled “Negotiating High Modernism: The Niagara and St. Lawrence Transborder Projects”. Daniel is a Fulbright Scholar in Canadian Studies at MSU.
This presentation will explore various transnational aspects of the Niagara Falls and St. Lawrence megaprojects, both of which were built cooperatively by the United States and Canada in the 1950s. After charting the sometimes acrimonious bilateral negotiations, the construction of these two massive hydro-electric undertakings is outlined. The environmental and technological aspects are emphasized, particularly as they relate to differing forms of identity and nationalism. The history of these projects is used to explore the utility of the “high modernist” concept and qualify it for the North American context.