Episode 48: The Salton Sea(s)
“The Salton Sea is best understood as part of the Colorado River Watershed—its fate has been tied to the fate of the Colorado River always.”
A conversation with Dr. Traci Brynne Voyles (University of Oklahoma) about the environmental history of The Salton Sea as well as current and future challenges. Released April 14, 2023.
guests on the show
Dr. Traci Brynne Voyles
Dr. Traci Brynne Voyles is Professor and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma (OU), and Affiliate Faculty in the OU Departments of History and Native American Studies. She is a historian of colonialism, race, gender, and environment, with a focus on North America from the nineteenth through the twentieth century. Voyles earned her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California San Diego and completed a Mellon Environments & Societies postdoctoral fellowship in History at the University of California Davis.
Voyles is the author of The Settler Sea: California's Salton Sea and the Consequences of Colonialism (Many Wests book series, University of Nebraska Press, 2021), winner of the 2022 Caughey Prize from the Western History Association for most distinguished work on the American West and a 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. She is also the author of Wastelanding: Legacies of Uranium Mining in Navajo Country (University of Minnesota Press, 2015) as well as many peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, review essays, and public history projects. Voyles's current book project, Natural Childbirth: An Environmental History, explores the history of natural childbirth in the US, examining ideological and material conditions that shape birth as they have changed over time.
Voyles' work has been featured in a range of venues, including The Nation, The Atlantic, The American Prospect, Boston Review, ARTnews, KCET | PBS SoCal, and Edge Effects.
Learn more about Dr. Traci Brynne Voyles here and connect here.