March 27, 2015
Padilla Carroll presents paper at American Society for Environmental History Conference
Submitted by Valerie Padilla Carroll
Valerie Padilla Carroll, women's studies, presented her paper, "Selling Self-Sufficiency and Eliminating the Unwanted: The Contradictory Raced and Classed Redefinition of Back-to-the-Land during the Great Depression" at the 2015 American Society for Environmental History Conference in Washington, D.C.
Her paper explored the popular press promotion and reaction to New Deal policy that promoted back-to-the-land as a solution for unemployment during the Great Depression. As part of the panel, "Contested visions of back-to-the-land and self-sufficiency in the U.S," Padilla Carroll's paper discussed the contradictory ways that back-to-the-land was used both as a way to promote the self-sufficient man and as opportunity to solidify race and class power.