January 31st, 2020
This event is hosted by the Center for Asian Studies and co-sponsored by the Center of the American West. Free and Open to the Public “Americaville,” directed by Adam James Smith, is a feature documentary film on challenges of the American Dream in China’s replica Wild West. Residents of Beijing escape an increasingly uninhabitable city…
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January 28th, 2020
The Colorado Scientific Society in collaboration with the Center of the American West, is planning a one day symposium focused on the science and cultural issues at the interface between water and energy in Colorado. This symposium will bring together representatives from water providers and the energy industry to highlight these issues for our community….
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Acclaimed for his work in nearly every literary genre known to humanity, Calvin Trillin has been characterized as “perhaps the finest reporter in America.” For more than fifty years, he has contributed informative and insightful works of journalism to The New Yorker, while his books chronicling his adventures as a…
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE With distinguished careers in the Colorado State House and the Colorado State Senate, Dorothy Rupert and Norma Anderson set the bar high for dedicated public service, with more than thirty years of combined service in the legislature. When in office, they joined together to pursue solutions for…
Regardless of whether you call the West your home or you are just passing through, as a student at CU Boulder you live, breathe, eat, drink, and sleep “West.” Take this opportunity to transform your unique perspective on this region into cash! Search your hard drive for poems, stories, and papers you have written on…
January 24th, 2020
Alison Rose Jefferson, M.H.C, Ph.D. is a historian and heritage conservation consultant. Her research interests explore the intersection of American history and the African American experience in southern California, particularly during the Jim Crow era, historical memory, public history, spatial justice, and cultural tourism, with an aim to engage broad audiences through applied history projects in the…
Alison Laurence is a Lecturer at Stanford University in Thinking Matters, a program within Stanford Introductory Studies. She received her Ph.D. from MIT’s interdisciplinary program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) in 2019. A cultural and environmental historian, she specializes in the study of nature on display. Her dissertation, “Afterlives of Extinction: The Politics…
Daniel Fischer completed his Ph.D. in history from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in summer 2019 by defending a dissertation titled, “The War on Winter: How Americans Put Down Roots on the Northern Plains, 1854-1949.” He also holds an M.A. in history from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois…
Academic Advising Development Specialist, Fort Hays State University My name is Dr. Greg Atkins, and I graduated in May 2019 with a Ph.D. in US history from Washington State University. My research uses Colorado Springs to investigate how Christianity, boosterism, and urban development shaped the built environment of the American West over the last 125…
January 23rd, 2020
UPDATE – We are canceling the Walter Echo-Hawk Book Release – The Sea of Grass on March 12, 2020 at 6:30pm due to ongoing issues related to COVID-19. We apologize for any inconvenience and will plan to reschedule the event for the FALL of 2020. We appreciate your patience as we navigate this unprecedented situation….
December 18th, 2019
Moderated by the Faculty Director of the Center of the American West, Patty Limerick, this panel will feature speakers with backgrounds in politics, energy, advocacy, and psychology including: The Principal of Adamantine Energy and former head of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Tisha Schuller, The former Republican Congresswoman who pioneered the Global Warming Prevention…
Tickets available HERE Shoebox Stories is a story-holding project where you stand in another person’s shoes by reading aloud their story, saying their words, and holding, for a moment, the weight that they carry. Motus Theater will celebrate and recognize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s fight for equality and civil rights this year by asking…
October 10th, 2019
Char Miller is the W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College, in Claremont, California. Professor Miller is the first speaker in a series featuring established scholars who are also accomplished practitioners of Applied History. This event is part of a Mellon funded program in Applied History entitled “Weekends with the…
September 30th, 2019
Paolo Bacigalupi, Patricia Limerick discuss their books with community at annual library event Water rights and use have been a pressing issue throughout Colorado’s history and will continue to be throughout its future. At least, this was the theme of discussion at this year’s Loveland Loves to Read author talk. Loveland Loves to Read…
August 28th, 2019
A public conversation between former Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez and former Democratic Congressman and Senator Mark Udall. The evening will begin with a discussion of their sturdy and long-lasting friendship, and then move to a wide-ranging conversation about issues on which they agree, disagree, and half-agree! The Center of the American West’s Faculty Direct or…
August 22nd, 2019
The year 2019 is the sesquicentennial of the completion of the United States first transcontinental railroad. The history of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads abounds in instructive and compelling case studies very much worth contemplating in our times. This event will feature a presentation by Stanford Professor Gordon Chang, author of the…
August 21st, 2019
A public conversation with the accomplished Western landscape photographer Peter Goin, exploring his bravery and enterprise in taking on topics ranging from the West’s nuclear landscapes to the legacy of abandoned mines. Drawing on the long-running Goin/Limerick friendship (in essence, an alliance between a visual-arts innovator and a written-word dinosaur), this event will elicit congenial,…
The Center of the American West is proud to present a special Stegner Award & Humor Initiative event honoring Sheriff Dave Ward. Sheriff Ward did everything imaginable to hold his community together during the 2016 Bundy-led armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon. He is also one of the West’s…
August 9th, 2019
Did you miss this event? Watch it on our YouTube page now! Presented by the University of Colorado Law School, the Center of the American West, and the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies. Join us for a tribute to Vine Deloria, Jr.’s enormously influential book, Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian…
June 27th, 2019
The divide in Oregon between the state’s liberal cities and its conservative and economically depressed rural areas has made it fertile ground for the political crisis unfolding over a push by Democrats to enact sweeping climate legislation. Eleven Republican senators were in the seventh day of a walkout Wednesday to deny the supermajority Democrats the…
March 12th, 2019
From the Pages of BlackPast.org: Six African American Women You have Never Heard of Who Changed the West (and the World) In this lecture, Professor Taylor will examine six little-known black women whose experiences help challenge and redefine the basic narrative of the black historical experience. He will explore how BlackPast.org changes the narrative of…
February 11th, 2019
Win $500! Calling all CU Boulder graduate and undergraduate students! We are pleased to announce that the Twentieth Annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing Contest is open for entries. Entry Deadline: March 19th, 2019 at 11:59pm. Regardless of whether you call the West your home or you are just passing through, as a student…
January 28th, 2019
The Center of the American West and National History Day in Colorado are proud to present noted historian and author, H. W. Brands for his talk: The West & The Growing Pains of Democracy. The early exploration and settlement of the trans-Mississippi West coincided with the birth of American democracy. The West became an arena…
January 8th, 2019
The American Music Research Center and the Center of the American West are proud to present a public talk with Professor Josh Kun. Josh uses the DJ method of crossfading to explore and animate historic sheet music, vinyl LPs, and restaurant menus as tools in addressing contemporary issues of gentrification, urban redevelopment, and racial inequality,…
December 18th, 2018
As the year 2018 winds down, our nation is in crisis. You’ve heard that before. What you haven’t heard is a practical assessment of the cause of this crisis. But that’s about to change. Here’s the source of our troubles: We have been inflicting intense suffering on some very important words, forcing them to associate with…
October 10th, 2018
From your first years on the planet, you have been giving the experience called “hard times” a run for its money. Denied a refuge from human mortality and frailty, you figured out how to turn sorrow into an invitation to the past, present, and future to get better acquainted. In the enterprise you have christened…
October 3rd, 2018
A book release event with Stephen Strom and Rebecca Robinson. In late 2016, President Barack Obama designated 1.35 million acres of public lands in southeastern Utah as Bears Ears National Monument. On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump shrank the monument by 85 percent. A land rich in human history and unsurpassed in natural beauty,…
September 25th, 2018
Listen Audio: Ken Burns Doesn’t Believe History Repeats, Just Human Nature Never Changes He’s a documentarian with a style so distinct, he has a film editing effect named for him. Filmmaker Ken Burns has explored many facets of American history. On Oct. 2, he’ll be honored with the Wallace Stegner Award at CU Boulder for…
August 17th, 2018
An Evening of Conversation with the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Jon Parrish Peede On April 26, 2018, the U.S. Senate confirmed Jon Parrish Peede as the 11th Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Mr. Peede has devoted many years to enhancing the well-being of the humanities and the arts….
Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Jon Parrish Peede is Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. His previous positions include publisher of the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) at the University of Virginia, literature grants director at the National Endowment for the Arts, counselor to NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, director of the NEA Operation Homecoming: Writing…
July 17th, 2018
The Center of the American West, the Center for Humanities and the Arts, and the Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts are proud to present: An Evening with the Nation’s Most Influential Documentary-Maker, Ken Burns Every year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has…
March 29th, 2018
Eric Sondermann is a high-profile, Denver-based political commentator, writer, pundit, civic leader, entrepreneur, and consultant who is regularly called upon as a go-to source of independent political insight by a laundry list of media outlets across the state and the nation. He is respected for his candor, his independent thinking, and his ability to distinguish…
March 6th, 2018
In 1918 Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Jones received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, becoming its first African American graduate (though she was not allowed to “walk” at graduation, nor is she pictured in the 1918 CU yearbook). The first-born daughter of emancipated slaves, Lucile refused to be defined by the racist and sexist…
November 20th, 2017
When it comes to decisions about which historical figures we should remember and honor, and how we should conduct the “honoring” part, our nation has been floundering. Meanwhile, a bunch of Coloradans has just offered the nation a nearly perfect — let’s be honest, an entirely perfect — demonstration of how to do this right….
November 3rd, 2017
October 20th, 2017
Belle Turnbull (1881-1970) was the first strong poet to live in and write about the mountains and high mining towns of the Colorado Rockies. Well-known during her life but long out of print, Turnbull’s lyrics of sublime alpine wilderness and her narratives about the harsh and dangerous world of hard rock mining offer us a profoundly…
August 8th, 2017
Watch the welcome and keynote speaker Watch the panel discussion In Partnership with the Silicon Flatirons Center and College of Media, Communication and Information. The rapid acceleration of communications technology is changing our society and economy in profound ways. At this conference, we will examine the social implications and impacts of the information technology revolution,…
July 31st, 2017
On September 7, 2017, in the fourth public program in CU’s Vietnam War Commemoration lecture series, Vietnam Veteran, Senior Fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and former Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities William Adams will reflect on his experiences in the Mekong Delta in 1968-1969. In a difficult reckoning with their…
July 18th, 2017
For anyone trying to figure out the temper (literally!) of our times, the term “populism” is omnipresent, seeming to adopt a different meaning at every appearance. The Center of the American West presents the influential and accomplished American historian, Michael Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown University, and the author of The Populist…
March 23rd, 2017
Father and Daughter duo Ian Frazier and Cora Frazier, both humorists who write for The New Yorker magazine as well as a host of other prominent publications, will join Patty Limerick for a discussion—and many demonstrations!—of techniques for applying humor to contemporary issues that often carry strong emotional and political charge. With a principled absence…
March 22nd, 2017
The human face of combat is on full display in James Wright’s new and much anticipated book. Based upon personal accounts and 160 interviews with veterans and their families, Wright offers a complete picture of the complicated and ambivalent nature of this war, and the young people involved: who they were, what they did in…
February 8th, 2017
So a stand-up comic, a literary scholar, and a behavioral scientist walk into a lecture hall, and a Western American historian hands them the question, “What’s so funny about pop music?” To hear the answer, along with an abundance of punch lines, plan to walk into that lecture hall yourself: Old Main Chapel, 6:30 p.m., March 8. Join comic Shane…
January 27th, 2017
1st place: $400 prize 2nd place: $250 3rd place: $100 Competition Details Humor is a tool underutilized in the area of climate change; yet comedy has power to effectively connect people, information, ideas, and new ways of thinking/acting. In this call, we seek to harness the powers of climate comedy through compelling, resonant and meaningful…
December 29th, 2016
You could have five hundred dollars sitting on your hard drive, or better yet, sitting in some untapped corner of your mind. We are looking for entries for our 17th annual Thompson Awards for Western Writing and first prize in each of the four categories is five hundred dollars! So all you fiction writers, poets,…
December 22nd, 2016
Ronald (Ron) Stewart worked in the newspaper business for more than 40 years at newspapers in California, Colorado, Oregon and Nevada. Recently, he has taken up writing fiction, and published his first novel, about early life in the Sand Hills of western Nebraska, in 2015. He happily lives in Boulder with his partner, Becky Roser.
December 21st, 2016
Oregon remains on track to gain a sixth congressional district in 2020, according to an analysis of new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday. “If we take those estimates and project them to 2020, we can then see what things might look like in four years,” said Kimball Brace, president of political…
December 19th, 2016
How are we to survive as a nation if a respect for accuracy provides no shared point of reference in our public and private debates and disputes? I start every morning with that question, and I end every day without answering it. The features of our world that have corroded society’s respect for accuracy present…
December 14th, 2016
“The 2016 Oregon Wildlife Refuge Takeover: A Tribal Response” A year ago, Former Chairwoman Charlotte Roderique of the Burns Paiute Tribe in Eastern Oregon came to national attention during the armed takeover, led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Originally part of the Paiute home territory, the Refuge holds many…
August 31st, 2016
In 1966, nine young men left the Arizona desert mining camp of Morenci to serve their country in the far-flung jungles of Vietnam. Ultimately, only three survived. Each battled survivor’s guilt, difficult re-entries into civilian life, and traumas from personally experiencing war—and losing close friends along the way. Drawing on personal interviews and correspondence that…
March 3rd, 2016
Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West. Timothy Egan has demonstrated singular achievement, creativity, and dedication to the perception of the West…
February 24th, 2016
In We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner place popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. They explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the world back home and of coping with the complexities of…
December 21st, 2015
A book release event featuring Pam Houston, Patty Limerick, and the book’s editor Taylor Brorby reading selections from the book and engaging in conversation about this complicated and important issue. Fracture brings together the voices of more than fifty writers who explore the complexities of fracking through first-hand experience, investigative journalism, storytelling, and verse. At…
September 30th, 2015
You could have five hundred dollars sitting on your hard drive, or better yet, sitting in some untapped corner of your mind. We are looking for entries for our 16th annual Thompson Awards for Western Writing and first prize in each of the four categories is five hundred dollars! So all you fiction writers, poets,…
September 3rd, 2015
William (Will) Wilson is a Diné photographer who spent his formative years living in the Navajo Nation. In 2007, Wilson won the Native American Fine Art Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum, and in 2010 was awarded a prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Wilson created The Critical Indigenous Exchange because he was impatient with…
August 18th, 2015
We are thrilled to announce the first Center of the American West Fool for a Day Award. This award was created to celebrate those individuals whose temperaments support the central conviction of the Center of the American West: a dose of good humor is essential to constructive public discussion, and not coincidentally, to public health….
March 18th, 2015
The role of the Fool has deep origins in human society. In the past, kings and queens recognized the value—really, the necessity—of appointing Fools who would speak openly and even festively of uncomfortable matters that would otherwise proliferate and fester. By breaking the spell of caution, timidity, and fear that held others under its power,…
Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West. For the first time ever, the Center of the American West is presenting the Stegner…
January 29th, 2015
The Return of FrackingSENSE: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Oil & Gas Development. With the help of community members like you, the Center of the American West’s FrackingSENSE series returns. These Spring 2015 events bring speakers who offer a unique range of perspectives on Hydraulic Fracturing…
January 28th, 2015
January 12th, 2015
November 18th, 2014
The Center of the American West is proud to host a screening of Losing the West a documentary about small ranching and farming, exemplified by the story of a lifelong Colorado cowboy. Howard Linscott IS the original Marlboro Man, a gruff, chain-smoking 70-year-old who has been ranching all his life. With sweeping shots of the…
The Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity series is thrilled to present Montana filmmakers Andrew Smith and Alex Smith and their movie, Winter in the Blood for a free screening and conversation. An adaptation of James Welch’s seminal novel of the same name, Winter in the Blood offers an intimate portrait of Native…
October 3rd, 2014
FrackingSENSE:TIMNATH What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Risk, Regulation, and Citizen Concerns. FrackingSENSE events are public forums, convened by the Center of the American West, that aim to increase the productivity and elevate the character of public dialog about unconventional oil and gas development in Colorado and…
September 15th, 2014
Randy Jones Memorial Lecture Series Featuring Robert G. Stanton Our National Parks: Lessons in Courage, Diversity, Justice and Environmental Quality The Center of the American West is proud to present former National Park Service Director Robert Stanton giving the 2014 Randy Jones Lecture, October 9, in celebration of the centennial of Rocky Mountain National Park….
August 6th, 2014
Jonathan Nelson originally hails from Portland, Oregon, however it wasn’t until moving to Colorado and completing coursework for the Center’s Western American Studies certificate that he came to appreciate what it means to be a citizen of the West. In addition to being a graduate of the Center’s certificate program, Jonathan has a bachelor’s degree…
June 23rd, 2014
Dan Omasta graduated from the University of Colorado in 2011 with a degree in Political Science focused on Environmental Policy and Land Management. At the same time, he also left the Center of the American West with a Certificate in Western American Studies. Dan has recently returned from New Zealand, where he worked with a…
April 3rd, 2014
FrackingSENSE: GREELEY What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Oil & Gas Development. Organized by the Center of the American West, in conjunction with the AirWaterGas Sustainability Research Network funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and with support and participation from the City of Greeley, KUNC, Mineral…
FrackingSENSE:GREELEY What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Oil & Gas Development. Organized by the Center of the American West, in conjunction with the AirWaterGas Sustainability Research Network funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and with support and participation from the City of Greeley, KUNC, Mineral Resources,…
February 12th, 2014
FrackingSENSE 2.0: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Oil & Gas Development. The Center of the American West, in conjunction with the AirWaterGas Sustainability Network and Boulder County are proud to introduce the Spring edition of FrackingSENSE 2.0. We have encouraged our speakers to offer evidence-based findings…
January 24th, 2014
FrackingSENSE 2.0: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Oil & Gas Development. It’s back! The Center of the American West, in conjunction with the AirWaterGas Sustainability Research Network and Boulder County are proud to introduce FrackingSENSE 2.0. In our first series, we asked our speakers to offer…
January 22nd, 2014
November 7th, 2013
In the Spring Semester of 2014, the Center of the American West will begin offering Beardsley Family Scholarships to undergraduates at the University of Colorado. In this first round, we will offer two merit-based scholarships at $1000 each. Eligible students must be full time (enrolled for a minimum of 12 credit hours) and have a…
Fifteenth Annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing Seven $500 prizes will be awarded to CU-Boulder students in the Spring of 2014 for writings on Western American topics. We invite submissions in the following categories*: Academic Nonfiction – Graduate Level: research papers* Academic Nonfiction – Undergraduate Level: research papers* Fiction – Graduate Level: including short stories and…
Applications are now being accepted for Spring 2014 internships. Apply by our earlybird deadline of Friday, November 22 for priority consideration. To qualify, applicants must be current degree program students at CU-Boulder with a minimum of 60 credit hours in progress at time of application, and a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. For more information: Go…
October 23rd, 2013
The Center of the American West presents, Words to Stir the Soul: Deeper into the Heart of the Rockies. A book release event honoring the late Denver Post Contributor and Preeminent Western Public Intellectual, Ed Quillen. “My dad had a knack for humor, an encyclopedic knowledge of Colorado history and lore, and he was never…
October 22nd, 2013
October 9th, 2013
October 3rd, 2013
Christo, an internationally renowned artist, will present a lecture on two works in progress: Over The River, proposed temporary work of art that will suspend 5.9 miles of silvery, luminous fabric panels high above the Arkansas River in south-central Colorado. The Mastaba, a project for Abu Dhabi, will be the largest sculpture in the world,…
April 4th, 2013
In June 2012, four adventurers started at the headwaters of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park and headed downstream for the next 800 miles. This is their story. Join us for a film presentation and a Q&A with Expedition Manager, Zak Podmore. For more information: Email: sara.porterfield@colorado.edu Call: 503-970-6803
April 3rd, 2013
The Center of the American West is proud to announce the 2013 Wallace Stegner Award Winner: Western American Historian and Author, Elliott West. “Elliott West is the best historian of the American West writing today.” – Richard White Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who…
FrackingSENSE: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Natural Gas Development. The Center of the American West, Boulder County, and the AirWaterGas Research Network invite you to a new lecture series. Beginning on February 26th, on Tuesday nights through May, a speaker with substantial expertise on natural gas…
March 4th, 2013
The makers of the film TINY: a story about living small, Merete Mueller and Christopher Smith, discuss the small house movement, good design, the nature of home, and the changing American Dream. TINY is a documentary about home, and how we find it. The film follows one couple’s attempt to build a “tiny house” from…
February 28th, 2013
February 27th, 2013
February 20th, 2013
December 13th, 2012
The Center of the American West is proud to present Josh Garrett-Davis, author of Ghost Dances: Proving up on the Great Plains, for a reading and book signing. There are places in America that have long held our collective imagination for their timeless beauty and mystery. The gifted young writer Josh Garrett-Davis takes a singular…
Each year, thanks to the generosity and kind support of CU alumni Jeannie and Jack Thompson, the Center of the American West awards cash prizes to talented CU students writing on Western topics. Judges from a broad range of scholarship and specialties seek writing with vibrancy and appeal to a broad, informed audience. We hope…
October 23rd, 2012
Executive Produced and Narrated by Robert Redford, Watershed tells the story of the threats to the once-mighty Colorado River and offers solutions for the future of the American West. As the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world struggles to support thirty million people and the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River…
October 18th, 2012
Gary Klein graduated from CU with a degree in Accounting in 1958. He began his CPA career working for Arthur Andersen & Co. in Denver. In 1961, he was Assistant Treasurer of MFC, a bank holding company in Denver. He was introduced to the new sport of snowmobiling in 1964, and became the distributor of…
October 17th, 2012
The Center of the American West is proud to announce a discussion about and book signing of A Ditch in Time: The City, the West, and Water, with the Center’s very own, Patty Limerick. Water holds an under-exploited capacity to show the connections tying together distant places and seemingly unrelated groups. This book traces the…
September 20th, 2012
Artist Statement America is the land of opportunity, the land of liberty and independence. It is the land covered from border to border and shore to shore, in spacious skies, purple mountains majesty and amber waves of grain. But there’s only one way to access this beauty, and that’s through public lands. Public lands allow…
Artist Statement The picture that I painted is of the Fountain Creek Nature Center. The Rocky Mountains are in the back, followed by a variety of plants, trees, and bushes, and then in the right corner, there is the Fountain Creek. The Nature Center and I have a special story. Every summer, I used to…
Artist Statement When I was a little girl, my grandparents took me on adventurous vacations to see the stunning Indian rock art all around Colorado. While we searched for hidden rock art, my grandmother said I could only have an Indian name if I could live up to an Indian characteristic. I would almost always…
Artist Statement I’m a senior at Chatfield Sr. High. I’m hoping to go to CU Boulder next year to major in Architecture. Any type of art has always been a passion of mine, which is why I want to be an architect: It’s a way for me to share my art with everyone for generations…
September 4th, 2012
Lunch & Special Address: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Ken Salazar Secretary of the Interior
August 27th, 2012
Sam Bock is a research assistant for the Center of the American West and a graduate student in History at the University of Colorado. Sam holds a B.A. in History and is a certified Social Studies teacher. He is working on a variety of projects for the Center, including the Governor’s Colorado History Initiative and…
August 23rd, 2012
Dave Cooper came to the Black Rock Desert in 2001 as the first BLM Manager for the Black Rock Desert – High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area and 10 associated wilderness areas. He led the effort to develop the first award-winning collaborative Resource Management Plan for the 1.2 million acres of public lands…
July 23rd, 2012
The Center of the American West is proud to announce the release of A Ditch in Time: The City, the West, and Water, written by the Center’s very own, Patty Limerick with Jason Hanson. Water holds an under-exploited capacity to show the connections tying together distant places and seemingly unrelated groups. This book traces the…
July 18th, 2012
After practicing environmental law in Washington, D.C. for a number of years, Adam Cramer started to use his legal skills to help kayakers and climbers with some of their conservation and access matters. Adam now leads Outdoor Alliance, a coalition of national, human powered outdoor recreation and conservation organizations including Access Fund, American Canoe Association,…
July 3rd, 2012
Barbara Sutter’s career in the the federal government totals thirty-two years. Seventeen years of her career were in Alaska, where she worked on the implementation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the Alaska National Interest Land Claims Act. Her tenures include ten years each in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal…
June 18th, 2012
12:30 pm – 12:45 pm Welcome (Free & open to the public) Bruce Benson University of Colorado President 12:45 pm – 1:30 pm Presentation of Awards for the Statewide Art Contest and Showing of Student-Made Films (Free & open to the public) 1:30 pm – 2:15…
Round Table Discussion, Turning Hindsight into Foresight: The Past & Future of America’s Public Lands, Part 2: Next Steps How should policy makers think about the public lands in the future? What might be the terms of connecting the well-being of the public lands to the well-being of the nation? Moderator:…
Roundtable Conversation: Turning Hindsight into Foresight: The Past & Future of America’s Public Lands, Part 1 How should policy makers think about the public lands in the future? What might be the terms of connecting the well-being of the public lands to the well-being of the nation? Moderator: Patty Limerick Chair of…
(Free & open to the public) The Public Domain and the Public Lands: 1812, 1912, 2112 Reenactment/Preenactment Event with Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and a Visitor from the Future Clay Jenkinson Humanities Scholar and Performer Bryce Townsend Actor
Session 6: Orchestrating Tradition and Change: Emphasizing Conservation in the BLM Conservation asks the people of the present to respect the interests of the people of the future. Asking citizens of a society that seems to be in a constant rush to think seriously about time and its passage will require creative and innovative…
Session 5: Respecting Posterity’s Property In the course of the last century, there have been several movements to privatize public lands or to return them to the states. What would be the costs and benefits of such a vast change in our current arrangements? Is the periodic rise of the movements for privatization of…
Session 4: Science vs. Emotion: Making Informed Decisions in the Midst of a Stampede Since the federal government’s sponsorship of the great explorations of the 19th century West, the role of science in public policy-making and implementation has occupied center-stage in the region’s development. This session will explore the experiences of land managers who…
Session 3: Reconciling the Treasures of Resources with the Treasures of Beauty and Biology: The BLM and the Art of American Energy The public lands bring the nation’s energy issues to a sharp focus. When we make decisions about the development of traditional and renewable energy on public lands (or of federally managed subsurface…
Interview Event: “Reflections of a former BLM Director” Bob Abbey Former Director of BLM Tim Egan Author & Writer for The New York Times
Session 2: Burning Man Meets Managing Man: The BLM and the Energy of American Art “Multiple use” has carried a wide range of meanings, but the example of the Burning Man Festival takes that wide range and widens it by several notches! The stories of the BLM’s response to the “management challenge” posed by…
Session 1: Clerks and Cowboys: The General Land Office and the Shaping of the United States When the public thinks of the history of the American West, images of trappers, prospectors, and cowboys rush to mind, but the land office clerks, along with the members of Congress who wrote the land laws, were far…
May 30th, 2012
Curt Brown obtained his PhD in Social Psychology with an emphasis in decision analysis from the University of Colorado in 1981. He has held several positions with the Bureau of Reclamation, including work in dam safety risk analysis, design of early warning systems, public involvement and social analysis, environmental impact studies, and policy development in…
May 23rd, 2012
Mike is Dean Emeritus of the Women’s College of the University of Denver. She is an educator with over 40 years of experience in higher education and K-12 public education. Mike has served on a number of Advisory Committees and Boards of Directors including the Mental Health Association of Colorado, Girls Count, Colorado Springs Public…
C. Stephen Allred was confirmed by the United States Senate as the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management on September 30, 2006. Steve retired as the Director of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on June 30, 2004, after a career which included over 40 years of public and corporate experience. He was appointed…
Duane Zavadil has served as Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Bill Barrett Corporation since February 2009. He served as Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs from January 2005 until February 2009. Since he joined the Company in July 2002 until January 2005, Zavadil served as Government and Regulatory Affairs Manager….
James L. Caswell, a veteran public land manager, was the Director of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. The Senate confirmed Caswell by unanimous consent on August 3, 2007. He headed Idaho’s state Office of Species Conservation, which provided a policy focus for endangered species issues and coordinated state and federal efforts…
Anna Triebel graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2012. Her senior thesis focused on the National Landscape Conservation System of the Bureau of Land Management. Anna was co-president of the Wilderness Study Group on campus and has volunteered with many other conservation-oriented groups in Boulder and Glenwood Springs, CO.
Adrianne is a doctoral student in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and program manager at the Colorado Water and Energy Research Center, where she studies the many intersections between Western energy and water resources. Adrianne traces her interest in the so-called “energy-water nexus” back to her days as a journalist in Washington,…
May 22nd, 2012
Art Goodtimes is a Green Party County Commissioner in San Miguel County and a renowned poet in Norwood (where he lives) and across the Western Slope. Goodtimes was recently named the first Western Slope Poet Laureate. Goodtimes received this title at the First Annual Karen Chamberlain Poetry Festival in Carbondale, created to honor the life…
Lois Herbst’s experience includes Central Wyoming College’s public television community advisory board, the Central Wyoming College Foundation, Fremont County Farm Bureau President, Fremont County Cattlewomen President, the University of Wyoming’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Advisory Board, the Wyoming Beef Council, the Wyoming Business Alliance, and the Wyoming Heritage Foundation Steering Committee. She was…
Dale Bosworth, a second generation forester and Forest Service employee, was born in Altadena, California and raised on ranger station compounds. He received his B.S. in forestry from the University of Idaho in 1966 and began working for the agency on the St. Joe National Forest in Idaho. Just prior to becoming chief, Dale served…
Bryce Lee Townsend is a proud member of the Udall clan (the artistic side, not the side with the defective political gene) who spent a lot of great time with his grandfather, Stewart. A born actor who never stopped, he went from family pageants to children’s theater, high school theater & on to a BFA…
Clay Jenkinson is a humanities scholar, author, and social commentator who has devoted most of his professional career to public humanities programs and is considered one of the most entertaining public speakers in the United States. His performances are always humorous, educational, thought-provoking, and enlightening, while maintaining a steady focus on ideas. Jenkinson portrays Theodore…
Emilyn Sheffield is a Professor of Recreation and Parks Management at California State University, Chico in beautiful northern California. For more than 20 years she has worked with partners to connect people to the parks and protected places that enhance our lives. Her “trends work” helps local, state, and federal agencies and conservation organizations to…
Robert Bennett, the son of Wallace Foster Bennett, is a US Senator from Utah. He was born in Salt Lake City and graduated from the University of Utah in 1956. He has served in the Utah National Guard, as a Congressional liaison for the US Department of Transportation, as the CEO of Franklin Quest, and…
Luther Propst founded and directs the Sonoran Institute, with offices in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona; Bozeman, Montana; Glenwood Springs, Colorado; Cheyenne and Sheridan, Wyoming; Twentynine Palms, California; and Mexicali, Mexico. The Sonoran Institute’s mission is to inspire and enable community decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of the West. The Institute…
Dr. John Freemuth teaches in the Boise State University Master of Public Administration Program and Political Science Department. Freemuth’s research and teaching emphasis is in natural resource and public land policy and administration. He is the author of an award-winning book, Islands under Siege: National Parks and the Politics of External Threats (University Of Kansas,…
One of the most renowned and respected contemporary conservationists, Mike Dombeck dedicated a quarter of a century to managing federal lands and natural resources in the long-term public interest. His leadership in the Bureau of Land Management and as former chief of the Forest Service impacted nearly 500 million acres. His legacy is one of…
Steve Thompson, a 30-year career veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), became manager of the California-Nevada Operations Office (CNO) in 2002. In this post, he oversees FWS programs that administer the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act, as well as manages 46 national wildlife refuges and three national fish hatcheries…
The sixth of 12 children, Bill Ritter, Jr. was raised on a small farm in Arapahoe County, Colorado. He was a member of the first graduating class of Gateway High School (1974), earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Colorado State University (1978), and his law degree from the University of Colorado (1981). From…
Johanna Wald is a senior attorney at Natural Resources Defense Council and the Land Program Director. Her primary area of expertise is federal land and resource management, and she works on issues involving biological diversity, endangered species, and protection of natural values. In 1993, Johanna was named one of ten Pew Scholars in Conservation and…
Will Roger Peterson started working in photography in 1970 at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Prior to that, his education included a degree in analytical chemistry. He served almost 20 years at RIT, working variously as a photo chemist, administrator, associate professor, and assistant director. Always a student, Roger acquired subsequent degrees in both…
Professor Sutter teaches modern U.S. history and environmental history at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement (2002) and The Art of Managing Longleaf: A Personal History of the Stoddard Neel Approach (with Leon Neel and Albert Way, 2010), and…
Anne Hyde teaches the history of Native America and of North America in general at Colorado College. She arrived there in 1991 and has served as Chair of Race and Ethnic Studies and as Director of the Partnership for Civic Engagement and the Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies. She received her A.B. degree in American…
Bruce D. Benson became president of the University of Colorado in March 2008. Since taking the helm of his alma mater, Benson has enhanced CU’s standing as one of the nation’s leading teaching and research universities, advancing the economy, health, and culture of Colorado and beyond. During Benson’s tenure, CU’s research funding has reached record…
April 12th, 2012
A leading thinker on environmental issues for over three decades, Lynn Scarlett has held influential positions both inside and outside of government. She is currently a senior Visiting Scholar at Resources for the Future (RFF) in Washington, DC. Scarlett was recently appointed co-director of RFF’s Center for the Management of Ecological Wealth (CMEW). She is…
Ken Salazar, a fifth-generation Coloradan, was confirmed as the 50th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on Jan. 20, 2009 in a unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate. Prior to his confirmation, Salazar served as Colorado’s 35th U.S. Senator, winning election in November 2004 and serving on the Finance Committee, which oversees the…
Walter Echo-Hawk is a Native American attorney, tribal judge, author, activist, and law professor. He represents Indian tribes on important legal issues, such as treaty rights, water rights, religious freedom, prisoner rights, and repatriation rights. His career spans the pivotal years when Indian tribes reclaimed their land, sovereignty, and pride in a stride toward freedom….
Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a writer for The New York Times, first as the Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a national enterprise reporter. In 2006, Mr. Egan won the National Book Award, considered the nation’s highest literary honor, for his history of people who lived through the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard…
Robert Abbey was confirmed as Director of the Bureau of Land Management on August 7, 2009. Abbey served for more than 32 years in public service, working with state and federal land management agencies before retiring from the federal government in July 2005. He served eight years as the Nevada State Director for the U….
March 2nd, 2012
Coming Out of Hibernation: Bears, Their Stories, and You Are you coming out of hibernation? Ready for spring? So, too, are the bears in our environs. And really, how much do you know about the bears that occupy our state? Laura Pritchett, author of the new book Great Colorado Bear Stories, and Jeff Mitton, University…
January 18th, 2012
December 19th, 2011
The Center of the American West is proud to present Kent Haruf with its highest honor, the Stegner Award, on April 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the Wittemyer Courtroom of the Wolf Law Building on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. A self-proclaimed “ministry brat,” Kent Haruf grew up in eastern Colorado, where his novels…
The Center of the American West invites you to a special Modern Indian Identity Event featuring multi-talented artist, activist, and public speaker, Bunky Echo-Hawk. Historically, many tribes would spend the winter months recounting the year’s hunting and battle exploits. A tribal artist would facilitate the group’s stories, interpreting multiple perspectives of an incident, and applying…
August 22nd, 2011
Native American Skies Join Dr. John Stocke at 7:00pm Wednesday evening September 14th for an “Arts and Culture Week” presentation of “Native American Skies”, the view of the sky as seen by the people of three Western US tribes. Dr. Stocke, a CU-Boulder professor of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, will use the multi-media capabilities of…
July 20th, 2011
The Words to Stir the Soul events spotlight some of the region’s best writing by providing a unique opportunity for both readers and attendees to deepen their appreciation of the region in which we live. This year, the Center of the American West will feature the work of Boulder-based poet and essayist, Reg Saner. His…
July 18th, 2011
“Indigenuity: Exercising Indigenous Ingenuity in the Age of Cybernations” The Center is pleased to announce Dan Wildcat as the ninth guest in the Modern Indian Identity series. Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Ph.D., is a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and an accomplished scholar who writes on indigenous knowledge, technology, environment, and education….
May 31st, 2011
You are invited to a memorable evening with Muffy Marshall Muffy Marshall is the 87-year-old daughter of Mayor General Richard J. Marshall, MacArthur’s Chief of Staff throughout World War II. She grew up on Corregidor Island, dated the officers who would end up on the Bataan Death March, then spent the war in Chicago as…
April 26th, 2011
Sometimes we journalists have to go into some pretty harrowing situations to investigate our stories. Take Ted Conover, who has become a train-hopping hobo, served a stint as a prison guard at Sing Sing, trekked with Mexican migrants, hung out with icky shallow Aspen people, and traversed some of the world’s most dangerous roads. My…
April 8th, 2011
The Center of the American West is proud to award John McPhee its highest honor, the Stegner Award, on October 27th at 7:00 in the evening in Old Main Chapel on the CU campus. 2011 marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of John McPhee’s extraordinary work, Encounters with the Archdruid. Patty Limerick has long…
March 4th, 2011
Thank you to everyone who came out for “Native American Skies.” Because of the event’s overwhelming popularity, Astronomy Professor John Stocke will be presenting again for anyone who missed the show. “Native American Star Lore” Hosted by Fiske Planetarium Doors to the building open at 6:30 p.m. Doors to the theater open at 6:45 p.m….
February 2nd, 2011
John Stocke, Astronomy Professor in the Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, and board member of the Center of the American West, will present “Native American Skies” at the Fiske Planetarium on the CU campus at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2. This multimedia show will feature the traditional star knowledge…
January 18th, 2011
UPDATE: Colorado Public Radio aired an hour-long edited version of our event, Words to Stir the Soul and Reckon with Reality, on April 10 and April 11, 2011: You can listen online at CPR’s website. The Center of the American West was honored to host Words to Stir the Soul and Reckon with Reality: The…
January 5th, 2011
The contest is open to ALL degree-seeking CU-Boulder students. For official rules, click here.
Charles Wilkinson is Distinguished Professor and Moses Lasky Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School. He is also the co-founder of the Center of the American West. In his remarkable new book, The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon, Wilkinson brings to life the history of the…
November 22nd, 2010
Todd Gleeson grew up among the orange groves of southern California when they still grew them there. He earned a doctorate from the University of California, Irvine, in developmental and cell biology in 1979, and has been a member of the Boulder faculty since 1981. He is a professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology,…
October 7th, 2010
The program “Words to Stir the Soul” is our fall “kick-off” event, spotlighting some of the region’s best writing and providing a unique opportunity for both readers and attendees to deepen their appreciation of the region in which we live. Of all the people who feel connected to and committed to Western places, individuals who…
Susan Deans, Vice President and Editor of the Daily Camera Reading from Robert L. Perkin, The First 100 Years: An Informal History of Denver and the Rocky Mountain News (Doubleday, 1959). ASIN: B00007E6NGO Justin Dombrowski, Boulder Wildland Fire Management Coordinator Reading from Gary Snyder, “Axe Handles” from Axe Handles: Poems (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005). ISBN:…
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt will visit the University of Colorado at Boulder Sept. 23 to speak about his new book, Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America. Babbitt’s appearance was sponsored by CU-Boulder’s Center of the American West, Natural Resources Law Center, and…
The first nine years of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah was discussed with monument manager Dave Hunsaker in a public event at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Sept. 28. Hunsaker’s talk was followed by a conversation with CU-Boulder history and environmental studies Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick and Distinguished Professor Charles Wilkinson…
Louis Warren explores the life of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the most famous American in the world in the late nineteenth century. Along the way, we learn the sources of his legend, and how his purposeful (and fantastically popular) entangling of history and myth illuminate for us the politics and culture of the United…
Author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams will be honored by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West on Nov. 2 at 7:00 p.m. The Center will present Williams with its highest recognition, the Wallace Stegner Award. The free public event will be in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom. Williams…
A new anthology about reintroducing wolves in Colorado and the Southwest was discussed by a panel of three writers, including Pam Houston, on Monday, Nov. 21, at a University of Colorado at Boulder event. The speakers discussed the book Comeback Wolves: Western Writers Welcome the Wolf Home at 7:00 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. A…
Personal stories and eyewitness accounts of the 1930s’ Dust Bowl disaster on the high plains were part of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Timothy Egan’s public discussion January 9, 2006, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Egan discussed his new book, The Worst Hard Time, at 6:30 p.m. in the Old Main Chapel. The event was…
Donald Hodel, who held two cabinet posts during the Reagan administration, including Secretary of the Interior, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on January 19, 2006. Hodel will speak at 6:00 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 150, in a conversation with CU-Boulder Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Patricia Limerick,…
To celebrate the re-release of her landmark 1987 book, The Legacy of Conquest, University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick joined with Stanford University historian Richard White in a special public conversation on Feb. 4. The two well-known and influential historians of the American West spoke in the Marriott Hotel’s Montrachet Room, 2660…
Elliott West, an award-winning author and Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas, gave a public talk at the University of Colorado at Boulder on February 20, 2006. West spoke about the reaction to his best-known book, The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado. The 1988 book won numerous awards…
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West will present a talk by author and historian David Wrobel on March 22, 2006, addressing how K-12 teachers and college professors can collaborate – and have collaborated – in the teaching of history. The talk, “Partnerships for the Future Built on the Past: How…
Two prominent former Secretaries of the Interior, Stewart Udall and James Watt, will meet in a public event for the first time April 20 to discuss land management issues with University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Patricia Limerick. The public conversation will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom…
The Jubilate! Sacred Singers of Boulder performed works celebrating nature and the American West by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, William Billings, Bob Nolan, William Dawson, and others at Chautauqua Auditorium. Dr. George Russell, a Boulder dermatologist, also performed poetry by Robert Frost and E. E. Cummings. “We are very pleased to…
Noted energy expert Dr. Willett Kempton gave a talk on Monday, May 15, entitled “Preventing Climate Catastrophe: How Soon, How Much, and How to Cut CO2?” at the Chautauqua Community House. Dr. Kempton is Senior Policy Scientist at the University of Delaware’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy and Assistant Professor in the University’s School…
Rebecca Watson, former Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the U.S. Department of the Interior, lectured on “Current Administration Energy Policies” at Chautauqua Park in Boulder on Monday, May 22. While at the Department of the Interior, Watson was involved in setting policy and providing oversight to the Bureau of Land Management, Minerals…
Peace Chiefs at Work: Stories About Remarkable American Indian Leadership in This Generation Twenty-first-century Indian people face a particular and peculiar dilemma with history and time. Novelists and filmmakers have had extraordinary success in romanticizing the Western past, and one result is this: in the minds of many non-Indians, the only “real Indians” are nineteenth-century…
The Center’s next event, part of its summer lecture series on energy, will feature Greg Franta, principal architect and team leader of the Rocky Mountain Institute/ENSAR Built Environment Team. Franta will speak on “Green Building Practices” in the Chautauqua Community House. He will present slides from around the world illustrating strategies for sustainability in site…
Harry R. Lewis, a Harvard Professor and former Dean of Harvard College, offers his provocative analysis of how America’s great universities are failing students and the nation. America’s great research universities are the envy of the world – and none more so than Harvard. Never before has the competition for excellence been fiercer. But while…
Two-time Grammy and two-time Emmy nominee Bill Mooney of Boulder performed an original one-man show as famed frontier showman William F. Cody in “Tonight! Buffalo Bill!” Aug. 14 at Chautauqua Auditorium. The show was written by Mooney especially for the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “Of all the…
The CU-Boulder Center of the American West celebrated the rich literary heritage of the region Sept. 5 with its 10th annual “Words to Stir the Soul: Readings from the American West” at 7:00 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. The popular program featured about a dozen well-known community members and CU-Boulder faculty who read selections from…
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt celebrated the centennial of the Antiquities Act – used by U.S. Presidents to declare national monuments and thereby protect millions of acres of land – in a talk at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Oct. 9. Babbitt spoke at 7:00 p.m. in the courtroom of the Wolf Law…
Native American activists John Echohawk and Billy Frank, Jr., were honored by the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West on Nov. 2 at 7:00 p.m. at the Glenn Miller Ballroom. The Center presents the Wallace Stegner Award, its highest recognition, to individuals who have made a sustained contribution to the cultural…
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx presented the Center of the American West’s Distinguished Lecture at 7:00 p.m. on Nov. 29 in the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The event was free and open to the public. A reception and book signing followed the lecture. The CU-Boulder Center of the American…
Richard Sellars of Santa Fe, N.M., will speak on “Past Perfect? Historic Preservation in the National Park System” at 4:00 p.m. in the Wolf Law Building, room 207. The inaugural event in the Randy Jones Memorial Lecture Series is free and open to the public. The lecture is sponsored by the CU-Boulder Center of the…
University of Michigan Professor Phil Deloria will lecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder April 16 as part of a Center of the American West series aimed at improving understanding between Indians and non-Indians. The talk, “Crossing the (Indian) Color Line: A Family Memoir,” is part of the Modern Indian Identity lecture series and…
The changing patterns of land use in the American West and problems of land use planning and growth management are the subject of a talk by University of Colorado at Boulder geographer William Travis on April 26. Travis, author of the newly released New Geographies of the American West: Land Use and Changing Patterns of…
The Center was proud to present internationally-acclaimed author Ivan Doig with the 2007 Wallace Stegner Award. Mr. Doig spent the evening in conversation with Center of the American West founders Patty Limerick and Charles Wilkinson. Doig grounds his poetic prose in the landscape of the American West, mining it for universal truths in such books…
My Father’s Stories: Remembering Oklahoma The Center presents Dr. Eva Marie Garroutte in this fall’s Modern Indian Identity lecture. Professor Garroutte is the author of Real Indians: Identity, Community, and the Survival of Native America. In this talk, Professor Garroutte blends her father’s stories of growing up in the Cherokee Nation of the 1930s with…
This year, the Center honored the tireless, and oftentimes thankless, exertions of Colorado’s public servants. With Mayor John Hickenlooper as our host, we celebrated the dedicated spirit that drew these exceptional individuals into their challenging line of work. Participants read passages from Western literature that have inspired, thrilled, educated, and enlightened them. Readers included: Senator…
George Catlin was a self-taught artist who dedicated himself to painting Indians and their culture. Professor John Hausdoerffer discussed the impact these paintings have had on Indians and the popular conception of them. John Hausdoerffer is Director of Environmental Studies and Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy at Western State College in Gunnison, CO.
This film screening was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Patty Limerick. The respectful and positive exchange reflected on the current opportunities and challenges surrounding energy development in the West. Panel Participants: Joe Brown, Director and Producer Joe Brown is a librarian, activist filmmaker, and aspiring journalist. He studied Philosophy and History at CU-Boulder…
An Evening with Robert Mirabal This was a very special evening with Grammy Award-winner Robert Mirabal. As a composer, songwriter, and musician, Mirabal has won many honors, including two-time Native American Artist of the Year, three-time Songwriter of the Year, and a 2006 Grammy Award for “Sacred Ground” – Best Native American Album of the…
The Center of the American West, in conjunction with the University of Colorado Law School, was proud to present one of the most influential, and interesting, Westerners of our time, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, with the 2008 Wallace Stegner Award. Justice O’Connor was the first female Supreme Court Justice and her time on the bench…
Patty Limerick, Ph.D., award-winning historian and Chair of the Board at the Center of the American West, University of Colorado, interviewed J. Robert Oppenheimer as portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson, award-winning humanities scholar and author. The first atomic device was detonated more than 60 years ago, but the aftershocks can still be felt today. During…
“Why I did what I did”: Sharing the American Indian Story in our National Parks The Center welcomed Superintendent Gerard Baker, the highest-ranking Native American in the National Park Service, to both the University of Colorado and to Rocky Mountain National Park. Superintendent Baker delivered a lecture as part of our Modern Indian Identity series…
The Western Literature Association and the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West hosted a celebration of contemporary Western writing in conjunction with the Western Literature Association’s 43rd Annual Conference. The week-long event provided the CU-Boulder community with a rich and varied program of free public readings and presentations by prominent Western authors. Featured…
On the heels of one of the longest presidential campaigns in history, one that has turned up the heat on the topic of immigration, the Center shifted the focus back from positions to people. This special evening celebrated the literature of immigration, rather than the policies of immigration. A large crowd listened as community members,…
This evening highlighted the issues that arise when traditional and cultural land use issues come into conflict with non-religious and oftentimes profit-motivated uses of the land. The program was presented by the Natural Resources and Environmental Law Section of the Boulder County Bar Association, together with the Center of the American West, in cooperation with…
Willett Kempton is Associate Professor in the College of Marine and Earth Studies, and Director of the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration, at the University of Delaware. His training is in cognitive anthropology, electrical engineering, and computer science. He has 30 years experience with social and technical energy analysis, including energy conservation, renewable energy, and…
The Center of the American West presented Western author Tom McGuane with the prestigious 2009 Wallace Stegner Award in an engaging evening. Each year, the Center celebrates the life and achievements of an individual that has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding…
Amy Irvine is a nationally-ranked competitive rock climber and for five years was the Development Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Her book, Trespass, is the story of one woman’s struggle to gain footing in inhospitable territory. A wilderness activist and apostate Mormon, Amy Irvine sought respite in the desert outback of southern Utah’s…
The Center was proud to welcome David Treuer as the sixth guest in our Modern Indian Identity series. This series features contemporary Indian speakers telling their stories in ways that shatter misconceptions on what it means to be a “real Indian.” Treuer is an Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is…
This panel discussion was presented by the Boulder Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee, the CU Center of the American West, and the Boulder History Museum. To call the past 50 years of Boulder’s history tumultuous is an understatement. Boulder’s transformation over that time – from a community bent on a path of rapid growth and development in…
One of the foremost experts on the environmental history of fire, Stephen Pyne discussed fire in America, addressing the issues that it raises about the interface of wild lands and urban development. Noted for his highly entertaining and accessible approach to academic topics, Pyne is currently a Regents Professor at Arizona State University, has received…
Zuni farmer, museum director, and interrupted artist Jim Enote spoke at the University of Colorado at Boulder September 17 as part of the Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity series. The talk, “Stranger than Paradise: Is There a Medicine Man in the House?” examined the paradoxes present in living on Indian reservations. The…
Boulder can boast of being placed on many “Best of…” lists: most educated cities, best cities for bicycling, best healthy places to retire, greenest cities, top art destination, and so forth. Comparisons to other innovative cities along these lines are natural and create a set of kindred cities, from whom we may have been “separated…
Retired Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Bob Barbee spoke as part of the third Randy Jones Memorial Lecture, jointly sponsored by the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West and the National Park Service. The talk was free and open to the public. Barbee served a long and distinguished career with the National Park System…
The Center celebrated the release of its newest book, Remedies for a New West: Healing Landscapes, Histories, and Cultures. Published by the University of Arizona Press, this exciting new collaborative volume, coedited by Patty Limerick, Andrew Cowell, and Sharon Collinge, offers a kaleidoscope of viewpoints from engineers, biologists, linguists, musicians, lawyers, and others – on…
Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, an avid inventor, and principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt will be played by actor Clay Jenkinson. Jenkinson is a humanities scholar, author, and social commentator who has devoted most of his professional career to public humanities programs and…
Theodore Roosevelt was the twenty-sixth President of the United States and is remembered for his leadership of the Progressive Movement as well as his “cowboy” image. Theodore Roosevelt will be portrayed by actor Clay Jenkinson. Jenkinson is a humanities scholar, author, and social commentator who has devoted most of his professional career to public humanities…
CU-Boulder Professor, award-winning journalist, and aquatic ecologist Anders Halverson celebrated the release of his newest book, An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World, with the Center of the American West on March 4, 2010. This exhaustively-researched and gripping account follows the discovery and propagation of the most commonly stocked…
October 6th, 2010
The Bureau of Land Management’s National Landscape Conservation System – an extraordinary, but under-recognized, collection of treasured public lands – is celebrating its tenth birthday with a signature event at the University of Colorado at Boulder. These uplifting landscapes, often home to rich and intricate ecosystems, have been designated for special care by the NLCS…
Following up on the success of the Center of the American West report, What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy Efficiency and Conservation, this film emphasizes the sexiness of our nation’s relationship with fossil fuels and explores how that relationship is evolving into a more mature and lasting union with alternative forms of energy. The…
Patty Limerick interviewed the 2010 Stegner Award recipient, Ted Turner, for a morning of engaging discussion. Each year, the Center celebrates the life and achievements of an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West. Throughout his career,…
“In the Courts of the Conqueror: A Native American Experience” We are pleased to announce Walter Echo-Hawk, a lawyer, tribal judge, scholar, and activist, as the eighth guest in our Modern Indian Identity series. With legal experience including cases involving Native American religious freedom, prisoner rights, water rights, treaty rights, and reburial/repatriation rights, Echo-Hawk worked…
Join us as Center of the American West affiliate and local historian, Buzzy Jackson, releases her newest book, Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist. “Who are you and where do you come from?” As a historian, Jackson thought she knew the answers to these simple questions…
