Center News

By Patty Limerick
Center for Native Ecosystems Entry
April 2009

At long last, we are positioned to embrace the muddled state of human nature, and therein lies our greatest opportunity for conservation.

Pure virtue and unambiguous principle, history shows, have struggled to keep their footing and stay upright when they descend from the heavens and try to touch the earth. When we depart from the zone of principle, reality instantly tosses our neat and pure categories around like last fall’s dry leaves caught in a wild spring wind. (Read on …)

By Annie Scott
April 16, 2009
CU Office of News Services Article

David Treuer, an Ojibwe Indian and prize-winning author, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 23 as part of the Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity Series.

The talk will take place at 7 p.m. in room 150 in the Eaton Humanities Building on the CU-Boulder campus. The event is free and open to the public. (Read on …)

By Tom Burke and Ken Neubecker
Friday, April 10, 2009
GJ Sentinel Article

“The West is very rich in resources. The West is very rich in landscape beauty. As a result, the West is rich in contention.” “It’s not easy being rich.” — “What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy”

That truth, contained in a 2003 publication from the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, has been evident since 2007, when the Legislature ordered a fresh look at rules governing oil and gas exploration and production in Colorado.

More recently, Coloradans became painfully aware of another truism — one about too many eggs in one basket — as a booming energy economy succumbed to the demons of oversupply, low prices, comparatively high production costs and lack of pipeline capacity. (Read on …)

New West Books editor Jenny Shank offers five simple rules for publishing.
New West Article
By Jenny Shank
April 8, 2009

A few months ago, my parents got a letter in the mail from the Center of the American West that said I was invited to a banquet and the organizers wanted to give me some more money for a writing prize I’d won ten years ago. Back then, I was in grad school in Boulder and I was working on my first novel, which I entered in the Center’s first annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing competition. There was no page limit, so instead of selecting a few chapters, I actually sent the entire manuscript I had at the time, and some poor souls apparently read 250 of my pages and gave me one of the prizes, perhaps as a nod to my audacity. (Read on …)

Video Posted on the S.J. Quinney College of Law Website
University of Utah
Filmed: 6 Mar 2009, Posted: 31 Mar 2009
Updated on: 31 Mar 2009

Patricia Nelson Limerick is the faculty director and chair of the board for the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, where she is also a professor of history. She has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between academics and the general public and to demonstrating the benefits of applying historical perspective to contemporary dilemmas and conflicts. She has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship and the Hazel Barnes Prize, Colorado University’s highest award for teaching and research.

Fox News reports on Patty Limerick’s April Fool’s day.

View the video news report on Fox 31′s website.