A Science on Screen® Presentation
Lost and Found: Preserving the Past
in a Disappearing
World
An Evening with Dr. David O’Hara
6:30pm - Screening of THE ARC OF OBLIVION (2023 | NR)
8:15pm - Presentation and Q&A with Dr. David
O'Hara
Join us for a fascinating evening with Dr. David
O’Hara as he shares insights from his recent expedition to Guatemala,
where he worked alongside members of La Asociación Bio-Itzá who are
working to preserve their Mayan language, culture, archaeology, and
language before they are lost to time. Most of us think of the Mayans
as a lost civilization or only know their stunning ruins. Dr. O'Hara will talk
about his partnership with Mayan people who are working to preserve their heritage. Through
stunning visuals and firsthand accounts, Dr. O’Hara will explore the challenges
of preserving these ancient sites, the scientific and ethical questions
surrounding conservation, and what these ruins reveal about a civilization that
continues to shape our understanding of history.
This event is part of our Science on
Screen series and will follow a screening of The Arc of Oblivion, a
thought-provoking documentary about archives, memory, and the ways we fight
against forgetting.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to journey deep into
the heart of Mayan civilization and discover why saving the past is essential
for the future.
Speaker: Dr. David O’Hara
Dr. David O'Hara teaches a variety of courses at
Augustana University, including Ancient Philosophy, American Philosophy,
Environmental Ethics and Law, Classical Chinese Philosophy, and Philosophy of
Religion. He teaches and conducts research in the forests of Guatemala, the
reefs of Belize and the tundra of Alaska, and he teaches environmental
humanities courses in Greece, Spain and Morocco. O'Hara earned a B.A. in
Spanish from Middlebury College, M.A. in liberal arts from St. John's College,
as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University.
O'Hara was the recipient of the 2018-19 Carole Bland Cultivating Faculty
Excellence Endowment and the 2008-09 Jane and Charles Zaloudek Faculty Research
Fellowship.
THE ARC OF OBLIVION (2023) explores a quirk of humankind: in a
universe that erases its tracks, we humans are hellbent on leaving a trace. Set
against the backdrop of the filmmaker's quixotic quest to build an ark in a
field in Maine, the film heads far afield -- to salt mines in the Alps, fjords
in the Arctic, and ancient libraries in the Sahara -- to illuminate the strange
world of archives, record-keeping, and memory. Playfully weaving stop-motion
animation, spellbinding cinematography and fascinating interviews from the
director's inner circle and experts in the fields of science, culture and art
-- including documentarians Werner Herzog and Kirsten Johnson -- THE ARC OF
OBLIVION reveals how nature inspires the human drive behind filmmaking.