Noted environmentalist and historian William Cronon will participate in DePaul University’s annual Forum on Nature and Culture April 28.

The forum opens at noon in the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 8005 with Cronon and two other panelists leading a discussion with College of Commerce faculty on “Nature’s Metropolis.” The discussion will center on the development of the Chicago region into a world center of commerce.

From 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Cronon will take part in a panel discussion on “Conversations Across Disciplines: The Hallmarks of a Liberally Educated Person.” The panel discussion, which includes DePaul College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty, will focus on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to a liberal education.

From 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Cronon will give a lecture entitled “Humanist Environmentalism” in Room 154 of the Schmitt Academic Center, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave.

Cronon’s premise underlying humanist environmentalism emphasizes that nature and wilderness are cultural constructs, and that we are a part of nature. He has stated: “Nature is all we’ve got. We are never outside it, and our lives depend on it.”

The Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison, Cronon holds doctoral degrees from Yale (1990) and Oxford (1981). His recent publications include: “Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England” (1983), “Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West” (1991), and “Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America’s Western Past” (1992). He is the editor of “Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature” (Norton, 1995).

All events are free and open to the public. For more information about the forum, contact Thomas J. Murphy, Environmental Science Program, 773/325-7422, or email him at tmurphy@depaul.edu.