James McWilliams, a historian at Texas State University and the author of four books, including American Pests: Our Losing War on Insects from Colonial Times to DDT, writes regularly for the New York Times, Slate, and The Atlantic, and is a contributing writer at the Texas Observer. In 2009 he received the Heitt Prize in the Humanities, given by the Dallas Institute for the Humanities to a scholar whose work promises to "change the way the world thinks." During his speech entitled "The Pen and the Plow: How Early American Farmers and Entomologists Worked Together to Control Insect Pests," he will share his insights on the history of early American pest control and much more.