Center News

CU Boulder News Center Article
March 30, 2009

Patty Limerick, the renowned University of Colorado at Boulder history professor who also serves as the official “University Fool,” will put on white face paint and hold court on campus on April 1.

Limerick will appear on a “throne” in the University Memorial Center’s fountain area from 11 a.m. until about 1 p.m. The University Fool will award licenses to those who come to talk with her. She will be near a sign stating: The University Fool Is Eager to Receive Petitions Requests for Consolation and Encouragement And Confessions. (Read on …)

By Jason Hanson
March 25, 2009
Center for Native Ecosystems Essay

Extra! Extra! Americans’ changing relationship with energy is big news at last!

Energy has finally found a place at the forefront of Americans’ thoughts about our future. Growing concerns about where our energy comes from, how we use it, and the ramifications it carries for our environment, our economy, and our national security have propelled stories about energy to the top of our newscasts and the front pages of our remaining newspapers. (Read on …)

Morning Edition NPR
By Jeff Brady
March 12, 2009
LISTEN NOW

There’s a saying in the Rocky Mountain West: Oil shale has a promising future — and it always will. The Obama Administration has reversed a Bush administration policy of allowing large leases on public lands for oil shale research and development. That made environmentalists happy, but oil companies are not giving up on shale just yet.

This podcast features Center of the American West Researcher, Jason Hanson.

Japanese American National Museum
2008 National Conference » Events (for more information)

Presenters:
Patricia Limerick, Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West, University of Colorado Boulder

Topic: General Activity
Date: Friday, July 4, 2008
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Location: Capitol 2 & 3, 4th Floor

Executive Order 9066, which authorized the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, did a lasting injustice to all American citizens, whatever their ethnicity. Patricia Limerick, Ph.D., faculty director and chair of the board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, argues that memories of the camps offer guidance and perspective on a universal dilemma in human nature. She’ll explore that dilemma by matching the episode to case studies taken from the history of Australia and South Africa.

This lecture is presented by the Colorado History Museum as part of the First Friday series.

Media:
JANM_EnduringCommunities_20080704-correcting-the-past.mp3 (12.3 MB)

By Jenny Shank
New West Article
March 4, 2009

Last Friday the Rocky Mountain News printed its last edition. With the close of the paper, another great books section vanished forever. I sincerely hope that Patti Thorn, the Rocky’s gracious, smart Books Editor finds a new home for her talents soon. I wrote book reviews for the Rocky for over eight years, and read the paper every morning since I was a kid. (I went out on a good note, with a review of the great T.C. Boyle’s latest novel, The Women.) I feel like I lost a friend. The Denver Post picked up a handful of the Rocky’s reporters, but the vast majority of its 200 newsroom employees are out of work, not to mention the many freelancers who wrote for the paper.

Reporter Nancy Mitchell wrote an inside scoop on the Rocky’s demise for Salon this week, ”The Death Throes of My Newspaper.” This economy is really starting to suck. Thankfully, as Thorn wrote in one of her last Rocky columns, a good coping mechanism is to bury your nose in a book.

On a happier note, the Center for the American West honored Montana writer Thomas McGuane with its Wallace Stegner Award last week. Patricia Limerick, the Center’s resident genius, interviewed McGuane about his life, and he proved a worthy raconteur, regaling the crowd with stories about the time he worked on a movie with Marlon Brando, “The Missouri Breaks.” (Read on …)