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 Board at CU Boulder's Center of the American West. Matthew Frye Jacobson is William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies and History at Yale. He is the author of seven books on race, politics, and culture in the United States.

In a time when many friendships have crashed on the rocks of political division, Dick Wadhams, former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, and Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of the Center of the American West, have maintained a steady tie of mutual respect. Drawing on years of finding each other's thoughts to be always worthy of consideration (and, every now and then, worthy of a stiff challenge!), Wadhams and Limerick invited the public into their conversation. They explored topics ranging from the reasons for the intensity of bitter partnership to controversies over historical monuments. At the center of their exchange they identified the issues where conservatives and liberals genuinely disagree and to call attention to the areas where they might find common ground. "You and I ought not to die," John Adams and Thomas Jefferson said to each other, "before We have explained ourselves to each other." In endorsing this principle, Wadhams and Limerick (who are, thankfully, both in good health) are honored to align themselves with a great American tradition.

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 effective channels of communication for correcting those misapprehensions?

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 effective channels of communication for correcting those misapprehensions?

Event Date: Feb 06, 2020 Event Time: 6:30PM Location: CASE Auditorium, CU Boulder Moderated by the Faculty Director of the Center of the American West, Patty Limerick, this panel featured 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 Act of 1989, Claudine Schneider, An expert in political psychology, CU Boulder Psychology and Neurosciences Professor Leaf Van Boven, and a Conservative Fellow from Citizens' Climate Lobby, Dan Palken. This diverse set of voices engaged in a one-of-a-kind discussion that offered insights into the barriers to climate progress in the United States, while also helping to illuminate the steps we can take to overcome those barriers. This event was FREE! And open to the public

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 a grant from the Research and Innovation Office.

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 a grant from the Research and Innovation Office.

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 is the Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of CU Boulder's Center of the American West. Nick Forster is eTown's Executive Director, co-founder, executive co-producer, and co-host of eTown's radio show. The Visiting Artist and Scholar Program aims to reinforce the mission of the Art and Art History Department by inviting leading artists and scholars to present an array of artistic practices, historical discourse and divergent perspectives that can increase access to creativity and forge new territories between the arts and broader cultural movements.

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 revitalization of the field of Western American history," Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of the Center of the American West, said. "And, as a dynamic speaker, he delivers insight with an intensity and energy nearly unmatched among scholars." Quintard Taylor, the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington, is the author of The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era and In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990. In 2004, Taylor created BlackPast.org. BlackPast houses over 3,000 pages of information, has links to over 600 other websites, and features contributions by more than 400 scholars. It is now one of the largest reference websites for African American and Global: African history.

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, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. For the past six years he has been writing a history of the United States in haiku form and publishing it on Twitter (@hwbrands). A book signing followed and books were available for purchase at the event.

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 of the West and the nation in ways beyond measure."

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 Colorado Boulder, where she has served as director of Women and Gender Studies and as the faculty associate to the Chancellor. She is the recipient of the Chancellor's Committee on Women Award, the Chancellor’s Equity and Excellence Award, Robert L. Stearns Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for teaching excellence, and the Best Should Teach Gold Award. This event is part of a series of Lucile Berkeley Buchanan commemoration events and is co-sponsored by: The Department of German And Slavic Languages and Literature. Women and Gender Studies. Ethnic Studies. College of Media, Information, and Communication. College of Arts and Sciences. The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement. Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program. Center of the American West

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 a Portland, Oregon–based writer. Her work has been widely published and she has received numerous awards for her work in print, radio, and online media. Voices from Bears Ears is her first book. Stephen E. Strom received his PhD in astronomy from Harvard University in 1964. Strom's photographic work is held in several permanent collections, including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. His most recent book is Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land.

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 confirmed by the Senate as a member of the National Council for the Humanities in November of 2015, for a wide-ranging discussion of tradition and change in the work of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as Chairman Peede's commitment to making certain that activities supported by the NEH take place across the nation, steering clear of the risk that those activities might occur disproportionately on the "coasts."" And, as region-centered scholars, they compared the role of the humanities in reckoning with the historical legacies of the American South and the American West, while they engaged in a congenial dispute over whether writers of history perform a greater service to history than writers of poetry and fiction.

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 a career in public service. From Wyoming Assistant Attorney General to City Attorney, he was very active in all civic, community, and state activities. As an author, teacher, and visiting lecturer, he continues to serve on numerous corporate and non-profit boards and travels the country giving speeches. His wife Ann Schroll Simpson’s career varied from teaching, grass roots campaigning, real estate, constituent activities, and social responsibilities. She served as co-chairman of the Congressional Wives Mental Health Committee, as a board member and president of the University of Wyoming Art Museum Board, and as an active fund-raiser for the Art Mobile, which is her brain child. Pete Simpson, a distinguished and award winning academic, and a notable historian and author, was twice elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives. In line with the Simpson family’s long tradition of public service, he ran for the office of Wyoming Governor in 1986. At the University of Wyoming, Pete Simpson taught a remarkable course in which students explored current issues and, drawing on their instructor’s network of allies and notable figures, proposed bills to the State Legislature. Long before the 2016 armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, Pete Simpson’s book, A Community of Cattlemen: A Social History of the Cattle Industry in Southeastern Oregon provided a clearheaded and tranquil understanding of that contentious locale. His wife Lynne Simpson’s career spans public administration, public affairs, community theater, the arts, and social services. Each year, the Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual or group of individuals who have made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West. The Center also presents the Fools for a Day award annually to celebrate those individuals whose skills and 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. Fools for a Day and Wallace Stegner Award recipients include: Sandra Day O’Connor, Former Supreme Court Justice (Stegner); Bob Mankoff, Former Cartoon editor of The New Yorker (Fool); Ted Turner Entrepreneur/Philanthropist (Stegner); JohnMcPhee The New Yorker Contributor and Pulitzer Prize Winner (Stegner). Thank you to Al and Carol Ann Olson, for their support of the Stegner Award, and to Bill and Jane Reynolds for their support of the Humor Initiative.

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 deploy as they navigate through disorienting times.

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 parable of memory and return.

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 of good humor is essential to constructive public discussion, and not coincidentally, to public health. This event is made possible by the generosity of Bill and Jane Reynolds and is part of the Center of the American West’s Humor Initiative.

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 friction-filled times, in collaboration with the RAP Lab and HuRL. The Humor Initiative is made possible by the generosity of Bill and Jane Reynolds.

“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 the American West’s most gifted practitioners in the art of using wit and humor to put fresh and disarming ideas into play,” Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of the Center of the American West, observed. “Anyone who joins us on February 21st will remember her visit for years to come.” The Modern Indian Identity Program features a series of contemporary Indian speakers telling their stories in ways that confirm the compatibility of tradition with innovation. The speakers have a profound tie to their peoples’ pasts, and they have also adapted with agility and enterprise to the conditions of our times. This event is made possible by the generosity of Liz and Tony Moores.

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 Veterans Services, the Conference on World Affairs, Program in International Affairs, and the CU History Department.

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 and Western issues. Mr. Egan writes op-ed pieces with a Western perspective for The New York Times once a week. He is also the author of seven books, including The Worst Hard Time, which won the 2006 National Book Award for nonfiction. Please join us for what will be a wonderful and stimulating evening. A special thanks to Al and Carol Ann Olson for making this event possible.

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 the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans—black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and “grunts.” Co sponsored by: AMRC, CU Boulder Student Veterans Association, CU Veteran Services, The Center of the American West, the Conference on World Affairs, the International Affairs Program, the CU History Department.

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 a time when politics and profits inhibit our ability to have meaningful discussions about fracking, these creative pieces provide an opportunity to change the nature of our national conversation.

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 the way that American culture remains enamored with photographer Edward S. Curtis’s portraits. For many people even today, Native people remain frozen in time in the Curtis photos. Wilson is resuming the documentary mission of Curtis from the standpoint of a 21st century indigenous photographer, building a contemporary vision of Native North America.

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. In addition to serving as the Cartoon editor of The New Yorker, Mr. Mankoff is the author of How about Never – – Is Never good for you?: My life in Cartoons and is the editor of The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker. Please mark your calendars for what will surely be an entertaining evening.

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 and Natural Gas and Oil development.

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 Award to an organization, Rocky Mountain Rescue. This all volunteer organization embodies the spirit of the American West, serving not only as the primary mountain search and rescue agency for Boulder County but also assisting other mountain rescue teams from across Colorado and throughout the West. In addition, Rocky Mountain Rescue provides disaster response services in situations such as the 2013 Boulder floods, blizzards, and fires; along with outdoor safety education to the community.

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 and Natural Gas and Oil development.

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’s been ranching all his life. With sweeping shots of the Colorado Rockies, the film explores whether cherished Western traditions and this fiercely independent lifestyle can survive as they collide with inevitable population growth in the West and its dwindling natural resources. The screening will be followed by a discussion between Patty Limerick and the film’s Director and Producer, Alex Warren.

The tradition of the Fool has deep origins in human society. In the mid-1970s, Patty Nelson (soon to acquire the fortunately silly surname ‘Limerick”) undertook to revive the tradition, with higher education as its “kingdom.” In this illustrated talk, she will review nearly four decades of adventures and misadventures as a selfconfessed, officially appointed, forthright Fool.

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 and Natural Gas and Oil development.

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 life that, as Howie Movshovitz says, “leaves ‘feathers or leather’ clichés behind.” Following the film NPR film critic Howie Movshovitz, the Center of the American West Faculty Director Patty Limerick, and Alex and Andrew Smith will engage in a discussion about the film and the issues it raises. Don’t miss this very special evening. The presentation will be followed by a discussion about the film featuring Patty Limerick, NPR film critic Howie Movshovitz, and the film’s writers, directors, and producers, Andrew and Alex Smith.

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 the American West at large. At FrackingSENSE events, the emphasis is on increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of public discourse through listening, evidence-based discussion, thoughtful questioning, respectful disagreement, and an atmosphere of civility.

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. Robert G. Stanton, former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., and former Director of the National Park Service, is a Visiting University Lecturer and Private Consultant in national park administration, natural and cultural resource management and diversity in employment and public programs. The Randy Jones Memorial Lecture Series was created by CU-Boulder’s Center of the American West, in collaboration with Rocky Mountain National Park, as a tribute to former National Park Service Deputy Director Randy Jones. Jones served as superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park from 1995 to 2002.

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, Inc., Synergy Resources, The Tribune, the UNC Faculty Task Force on Hydraulic Fracturing, University of Northern Colorado, and Weld Air & Water.

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, Inc., Synergy Resources, The Tribune, the UNC Faculty Task Force on Hydraulic Fracturing, University of Northern Colorado, and Weld Air & Water. *Note - Due to complications with the audio set up at the location of this event, we were unable to obtain quality audio for this entire presentation and removed the second half of the Q & A session from the podcast. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.*

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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, Inc., Synergy Resources, The Tribune, the UNC Faculty Task Force on Hydraulic Fracturing, University of Northern Colorado, and Weld Air & Water.

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate conflicting studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 information and expertise on various aspects of Natural Gas development. This time, we have encouraged our speakers to offer evidence-based findings that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 information and expertise on various aspects of Natural Gas development. This time, we have encouraged our speakers to offer evidence-based findings that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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.

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 information and expertise on various aspects of Natural Gas development. This time, we have encouraged our speakers to offer evidence-based findings that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate studies, and appraise contradictory claims.

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 information and expertise on various aspects of Natural Gas development. This time, we have encouraged our speakers to offer evidence-based findings that might lead to recommendations and prescriptions for the future. All our upcoming speakers will demonstrate how they weigh evidence, evaluate studies, and appraise contradictory claims.