Events & News

In the Fall 2024, Dr. April Yoder came to Rowan as part of the Hollybush Author Series to discuss her book, Pitching Democracy: Baseball and Politics in the Dominican Republic. She gave a compelling public talk (video below) and met with students over lunch to discuss the how the small Caribbean nation became a hothouse of baseball talent, and how the sport empowered Dominicans in their struggles for democracy and social justice.

In the Spring 2024, Dr. Rachel Gross visited Rowan to present her book, Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America. She discussed the irony of the American outdoor experience wherein visiting wild spaces supposedly untouched by capitalism first requires shopping for the right gear. With consumers spending billions of dollars on clothing and equipment each year as they seek out nature, the American outdoor sector grew over the past 150 years from a small collection of outfitters to an industry contributing more than 2 percent of the nation’s economic output. Dr. explained that this success was predicated not just on creating functional equipment but also on selling an authentic, anticommercial outdoor identity. In other words, shopping for the woods was also about being—or becoming—the right kind of person.