Center of the American West Event Podcast

Ari Kelman is a historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the politics of memory, and Native American history. Author of Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War andA Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek. Historians Imagine is a monthly webinar devoted to this dimension of the craft. Patty Limerick and Matthew Jacobson talk with path-breaking historians about the inventiveness and vision of their work, and about the more mysterious aspects of their practices—their imaginative spark and the virtues that lie beyond rigor and out of reach of your typical "how to" manual. These conversations will appeal to professional historians, to be sure, and might offer liberation from the academy's constraints and the disciplining demands of convention. But they will equally engage anyone who is interested in how new stories are made from old materials, and how great storytellers and historical sleuths think to do what they do. Patty Limerick is the Faculty Director and Chair of the Bo

Patty Limerick, director of the Center of the American West, and Jennifer Ho, director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts, talked about what it means to disagree. The partisan politics and extreme divisiveness of our current society have made many of us wary about entering into provocative subjects. How do we maintain unity when we confront divided opinions? How can we respect one another while vehemently debating topics we feel passionate about? Is it possible to separate the person from the provocation? Patty and Jennifer discussed all of this throughout the dialogue (and for many years to come!), modeling civil disagreement, robust curiosity about one another’s positions, and respectful friendship. Co-sponsored by the Center for Humanities & the Arts.

The Center of the American West has teamed up with the CU Latinx Law Students to orchestrate a virtual event, bringing two noted scholars of immigration into a consequential conversation with Congressman Joe Neguse, representing Colorado's Second District. The goal was ambitious: to lay out terms that will position these knowledgeable scholars as allies and teammates of a dedicated public servant who is committed to finding solutions and resolutions to one of the nation's most challenging issues. Here were the bedrock questions for this discussion: a) If Congress were to prove able to reform immigration policy in a post-election arrangement of authority, what should be the top priorities for such reform? b) What are the most beneficial ways to mobilize historical understanding to improve the quality of public discussion of immigration and to guide national legislators as they deliberate? c) What are the most notable mistaken impressions of the roles played by immigrants in the nation, and what are the most ef

The Center of the American West has teamed up with the CU Latinx Law Students to orchestrate a virtual event, bringing two noted scholars of immigration into a consequential conversation with Congressman Joe Neguse, representing Colorado's Second District. The goal was ambitious: to lay out terms that will position these knowledgeable scholars as allies and teammates of a dedicated public servant who is committed to finding solutions and resolutions to one of the nation's most challenging issues. Here were the bedrock questions for this discussion: a) If Congress were to prove able to reform immigration policy in a post-election arrangement of authority, what should be the top priorities for such reform? b) What are the most beneficial ways to mobilize historical understanding to improve the quality of public discussion of immigration and to guide national legislators as they deliberate? c) What are the most notable mistaken impressions of the roles played by immigrants in the nation, and what are the most ef

Event Date: Oct 30, 2019 Event Time: 1:00-6:30 pm Location: Norlin Library, British Studies Room 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 featured a presentation by artist Zhi Lin, from the University of Washington, who has created powerful works memorializing the Chinese railroad laborers. In Center of the American West fashion, this program also drew on "CU Boulder talent" reflecting on the larger lessons for the building of infrastructure (in China as well as in the U.S.) as well as the power of art to invoke deeper thinking about history. Presented by the Center of the American West, the Center for Asian Studies, the Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media, the Department of Art and Art History, and the Department of History. This event is also made possible by

Event Date: Oct 30, 2019 Event Time: 1:00-6:30 pm Location: Norlin Library, British Studies Room 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 featured a presentation by artist Zhi Lin, from the University of Washington, who has created powerful works memorializing the Chinese railroad laborers. In Center of the American West fashion, this program also drew on "CU Boulder talent" reflecting on the larger lessons for the building of infrastructure (in China as well as in the U.S.) as well as the power of art to invoke deeper thinking about history. Presented by the Center of the American West, the Center for Asian Studies, the Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media, the Department of Art and Art History, and the Department of History. This event is also made possible by

Last month, the Center of the American West presented 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 elicited congenial, and only slightly invidious, comparisons between the visual power of photographs and the constraints of words on the written page. eTown's Nick Forster, a gifted, knowledgeable, and energetic interviewer, served as moderator. The conversation explored the compatibility between the honest reckoning with loss and injury, and the forceful move toward redemption and reconciliation. Presented by the Department of Art and Art History and the Center of the American West. Peter Goin is an American photographer best known for his work within the altered landscape. Patty Limerick i

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 examined six little-known black women whose experiences helped challenge and redefine the basic narrative of the black historical experience. He explored how BlackPast.org changes the narrative of African American history by making available to a global audience significant people, places, and events. The Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Memorial Lecture is a free speaker series celebrating Lucile Berkeley, whose parents were emancipated slaves who settled in Colorado in 1882. Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Jones was a lifelong educator, a visionary who stood up against injustice, a woman of faith, and a firm believer in the electoral process. She graduated with a BA in German from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1918 and taught high school in Arkansas, Kansas, and Illinois. "As a researcher and writer, Quintard Taylor has played a leading role in the revitalizatio

CU Boulders Center of the American West and National History Day in Colorado, University of Colorado Denver were 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 in which the troubles of democracy were played out. The stakes were the future of the West, and of democracy itself. H. W. Brands was born in Oregon, went to college in California, sold cutlery across the American West and earned graduate degrees in mathematics and history in Oregon and Texas. He taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History. He writes on American history and politics, with books including Heirs of the Founders, Andrew Jackson, and The Age of Gold. Several of his books have been bestsellers; two, Trait

Every 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. This year's recipient was Ken Burns. His films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including fifteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Mr. Burns received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. His work on the American West includes Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, and The Dust Bowl. Patty Limerick interviewed Ken Burns, and explored the extraordinary public service he has provided his fellow citizens. In Limerick's words, "by lending his own vitality and spirit to the people of the past, Ken Burns has brought history to life for millions of viewers, enhancing our understanding

A Virginia Family's Rise from Slavery and a Legacy Forged a Mile High Event Date: Apr 04, 2018 Event Time: 6:30pm Location: Old Main Chapel 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 climate of her times, settling on a career path in teaching that required great courage in the face of pernicious Jim Crow laws. This personal story has great relevance to our times and has lessons of consequence that can guide the CU community as we seek to assess the present and work for a better future. This was the first in what will be an annual lecture series on the black experience in the West entitled the Lucille Berkeley Buchanan Lecture. Polly E. Bugros McLean is associate professor of media studies at the University of

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, Bears Ears is at the heart of a national debate over the future of public lands. Through the stories of twenty individuals, and informed by interviews with more than seventy people, Voices from Bears Ears captures the passions of those who fought to protect Bears Ears and those who opposed the monument as a federal "land grab" that threatened to rob them of their economic future. It shares stories of those who celebrate a growing movement by Indigenous peoples to protect ancestral lands and culture, and those who speak devotedly about their Mormon heritage. What unites these individuals is a reverence for a homeland that defines their cultural and spiritual identity, and therein lies hope for finding common ground. Rebecca Robinson is

An Evening of Conversation with the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Jon Parrish Peede. Event Date: Sep 18, 2018 Event Time: 6:30pm Location: Hale 270 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. He has served as the Publisher of the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) at the University of Virginia, Literature Grants Director at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Counselor to NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, and Director of the NEA Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience program. In his tour of duty as Chair, Mr. Peede has been an indefatigable advocate for the NEH, taking every opportunity to make the case for the value of the humanities to the United States, and maintaining a healthy level of support for the NEH. Chairman Peede joined the Center of the American West's Faculty Director Patty Limerick, who was

The University of Colorado Boulder’s Center of the American West is proud to present the Wallace Stegner and the Humor Initiative’s Fools for a Day Awards to Senator Alan Simpson, Pete Simpson and their wives Ann and Lynne. The Center has combined the Stegner Award with the Humor Initiative to celebrate the Simpsons’ contributions to our understanding of the West, and to embrace the opportunity to laugh as we do so. “As public servants, and as people who have contributed their great gifts as story-tellers to the well-being of the West, the Simpson Family occupy a central place in the cultural identity of the West,” Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of the Center of the American West said. “With the Simpsons in our midst, the West has cornered the market for honest, forthright, and very funny commentary on the whole nation’s successes and defeats, the charms and the vexations, the ideals realized and the ideals still in need of our attention and action.” Alan Simpson, Former U.S. Senator from Wyoming, spent

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 Persuasion: An American History (originally published in 1995), an exploration of the changing meanings and practices of populism through the course of American history. “Populism,” Professor Kazin has written, “has an unruly past,” and that quality of unruliness has taken hold as a major feature of our times. “At best,” he reminds us, “populism provides a language that can strengthen democracy, not imperil it.” In a conversation with Center of the American West Faculty Director Patty Limerick, Professor Kazin will share his distinctive understanding of populism in the past and present, providing the audience with steady and insightful interpretations to deplo

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 experiences in war, Adams knows from his own experience, many veterans also steer by the treasured memory of comradeship in facing risk and danger. As NEH Chair, Adams led initiatives to put the humanities to work in bridging the gap between the individual experiences of veterans and the nation’s involvement in a war that divided the nation, and may divide it still. When Americans, whatever their age or record of military service, can convene to speak honestly to each other about the experiences of veterans of the Vietnam War, the benefits of that conversation ripple in dimensions beyond estimation. Adams will also reflect on his recent return visit to Vietnam as a para

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 of flowcharts, spreadsheets, cryptic theories, and quantitative analytics, the evening will feature free-roaming conversations, jokes, readings, plenty of laughter, unexpected insights, and perhaps even a surprise treat for the audience! “Ian and Cora Frazier lead the nation—and maybe the planet—as sharp observers and original thinkers,” Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of the Center said. “An evening in their company will reaffirm the value and power of humor, especially in difficult times.” The Fool for a Day Award was created to celebrate those individuals whose temperaments support the central conviction of the Center of the American West: a dose

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?" Join comic Shane Mauss (From Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Showtime, Comedy Central, Netflix and host of the science podcast “Here We Are”) and CU professors Adam Bradley (author of The Poetry of Pop and director of the Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture, the RAP Lab) and Peter McGraw (co-author of The Humor Code and director of the Humor Research Lab, HuRL) for an evening of learning and laughter. Why do some subjects shock us in speech but amuse us in song? What makes both Bruce Springsteen and Kanye West laugh? Through a blend of stand-up and science, music and comedy we’ll unlock some of the mysteries of two primal urges: shaking our butt and laughing out loud. This event is sponsored by the Center of the American West and its ongoing Humor Initiative, which explores the value of humor as the equivalent of WD-40 in frict

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 sheds new light on the Morenci Nine, Kyle Longley has written a book as much about loss, grief, and guilt as about the battlefield. It makes compelling reading for anyone who lived in that era—and for anyone still seeing family members go off to fight in controversial wars. Kyle Longley is the Snell Family Dean’s Distinguished Professor of History and Political Science at Arizona State University and author of Grunts: The American Combat Soldier in Vietnam and In the Eagle’s Shadow: The United States and Latin America. This event is co-sponsored by: The Center of the American West, the American Music Research Center, the Office of Vetera

“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 of the tribe’s sacred sites, as well as artifacts and natural resources laden with cultural meaning. In a press conference, followed by a New York Times editorial, the Former Chairwoman vigorously presented the tribe’s view of the takeover. Mocking the refuge occupiers’ demand that they should be recognized as the original owners of the public lands, the Burns Paiute people asserted their status as the original residents and brought attention to the remarkable cooperation among Native peoples, federal employees, and ranchers, that had been in place before the Bundys seized center-stage. “Charlotte Roderique is a forthright and inspirational leader, and also one of t