In her 2009 Lee Lecture, author and musician Ann McCutchan will discuss the intersection of science and the humanities in her current book project Water Music: Rhythms of a River. Water Music examines environmental changes in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin by way of the life and work of Earl Robicheaux, Morgan City composer, naturalist, phonographer, and oral historian.

The book is essentially a double biography: of a place and of a person. Its aim is to show how the 1.4 million-acre basin, the largest river swamp in North America, has shaped the lives of those who live there, and how those who live there have increasingly shaped it. McCutchan’s presentation includes a reading from her work.