The spring-quarter presentations in the UC Davis Focus on Women and the Environment speaker series are all on the topic of biodiversity and society.

The speaker series is a program of the Consortium for Women and Research at UC Davis, which is dedicated to the support of research by and on women and on gender in its multiple intersections with race, class, sexual and national identity.

The April events are:

Wednesday, April 12: Workshop: "Understanding Biodiversity: A Cross Disciplinary and Cross Cultural Conversation." Speakers are UC Davis professors Sharon Strauss, evolution and ecology; Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, anthropology; Stefano Varese, Native American studies; and Julio Lopez, entomology and Native American studies. University Club Lounge, 4-6 p.m., reception follows.

Tuesday, April 18: Film and brown-bag lunch: "Fear and Fishing in Lake Davis: A Story About People and Government and the Fish That Came Between Them." Speakers are the filmmakers, UC Davis students Jarrett Byrnes, Population Biology Graduate Group; Liz Chamberlin, Ecology Graduate Group and English; Sarah Elmendorf, Ecology Graduate Group; Ryan Fischer, evolution and ecology; Suzanne Olyarnik, history; and Amber Wright, Population Biology Graduate Group. 3201 Hart Hall, noon to 1:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 27: Seminar: "Insects and Ecology in the New World: How a Woman Naturalist Constructed the Meaning of Biodiversity." Speaker is Kim Todd, author of the book "Tinkering With Eden: A Natural History of Exotics in America," and winner of the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. 3201 Hart Hall, 4-6 p.m., reception follows.