Southern Indigenous Waters – “Rising Waters: Writing Place and Environment”

“Southern Indigenous Waters” is the first event in the “Rising Waters: Writing Place and Environment” Thomas Howerton lecture series, a series that puts humanities scholars in conversation with natural sciences scholars about issues affecting us all. On October 30, 2025, Duke hydrologist Ryan Emanuel and East Carolina University literary scholar Kirstin Squint will discuss the centrality of place and water for southern Indigenous people. Dr. Squint will trace connections between two decades of hurricanes, from Katrina to Helene, emphasizing the importance of the stories we tell about water and its impacts on our lives. Her talk will draw from her work as an editor of Swamp Souths: Literary and Cultural Ecologies and her monograph-in-progress, Removal and Resistance in Southeastern Indigenous Stories. Dr. Emanuel will consider what it means to build and maintain cultural connections to water and watery places in a time of rapid environmental change. Drawing from his book, “On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice,” he will show how industrial pollution, unsustainable development, and climate change create challenges and opportunities for Lumbee people and their Indigenous neighbors in eastern North Carolina.