On April 18, 2024, the Department of Landscape Architecture welcomed Emma Mendel for a lecture titled "Narratives of the Deluge."

Mendel, the Department's McHarg Fellow, discusses a body of research that looks at cultural infrastructure in the form of deluge narratives, environmental folklore, and local stories about water and how they play a crucial, yet under-examined, role in climate mitigation strategies. By exploring various stories and urban legends that emerge from the Johnstown Flood of 1889—the event from which the phrase “Run for the Hills!” first originated—the lecture emphasizes how such narratives are deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of the region and shape people’s perception of water as infrastructure, resource, recreation, and risk.