The South Dakota Historical Society Press is now accepting applications for their associate editor position. The application period will remain open until the position is filled, but applications will be considered beginning March 28, 2022. 

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, a resume or CV, and three professional references to Dedra.Birzer@State.SD.US

For the full job posting, click here: https://bit.ly/35MQVqs

The Arizona History Convention has partnered with the Historical Society of New Mexico to stage a joint, three-day conference that offers the public an opportunity to share in Southwest History. 

The 2022 Arizona-New Mexico Joint History Convention will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico on April 7-9. 

For more information on the conference and to view the conference program, click here: https://bit.ly/3HsanVS.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library invites candidates to apply for the position of Curator of Western North American History.

The library seeks applications from a diverse range of candidates. A background in library science (or work in special collections), while helpful, is not a pre-requisite. The library’s system of professional ranks allows it to consider people with a broad variety of experience. At its core, the search seeks candidates who are deeply informed about the histories and cultures of the Trans-Mississippi West, including the region’s Indigenous communities and the multiple trans-national migrations that have transformed the West.

Candidates can apply for the job through Yale’s online jobs site at https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/Home/Home?partnerid=25053&siteid=5248#jobDetails=1527193_5248.

To be assured of consideration, candidates should apply by March 21, 2022.

The Department of History at the University of California, Davis is hosting the 16th Annual Western History Dissertation Workshop, which will be held May 12-14, 2022.

The Workshop

This year’s workshop is hosted by the Dept. of History at the University of California, Davis. UC Davis will pay travel expenses for up to five advanced graduate students writing a dissertation exploring any topic dealing with the history and culture of the American West. The workshop is co-sponsored by: the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest at the University of Washington; the Center for the Southwest at the University of New Mexico; the Autry National Center/University of California-Los Angeles Department of History; the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; the Center of the American West/University of Colorado Boulder Department of History; the University of Nebraska Department of History; the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University; the Pennsylvania State University History Department; the University of Kansas; and the History Department and L&S Dean’s Office of UC Davis.

This writing workshop offers vigorous dissertation support to advanced western history PhD students in a collegial group of 10-12 leading scholars from participating institutions across the United States. Applicants who are most likely to benefit from this workshop are those who have completed a few chapters of their dissertation and who expect to defend in the 2022-23 academic year. Selected participants will share one chapter (of no more than fifty pages) at the workshop and receive feedback from other participants and from senior scholars affiliated with the sponsoring institutions.

How to Apply

Please provide the following:

• a brief cover letter
• a short CV
• a dissertation prospectus/description of not more than two single-spaced pages. Your cover letter should indicate which chapter of your dissertation you intend to circulate for the workshop.

Send all items in a single PDF document to Louis Warren (lswarren@ucdavis.edu). Please arrange for your dissertation adviser to send a letter of recommendation via email to Louis Warren as well; that letter should address the significance and the status of the dissertation to date. 

Applications are due March 15, 2022, and participants will be notified of their selection by April 1. Selected applicants must submit a complete draft of a dissertation chapter for distribution to the group by April 15.

The Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives welcome applications for the Carrie Johnson Fellowship, which is gifted to graduate students, faculty, and/or independent scholars pursuing research on Butte, Montana or Silver Bow County history.

Fellowship awards of $1,000 – $3,000 will be made on an annual basis. Award funds are to be used for research support, including travel and lodging expenses, but not as salary. Awards are to be used for scholarly projects including preparation of seminar papers, theses, dissertations, monographs, and book-length projects.

Each recipient is expected to be in residence conducting research for the equivalent of three weeks between May 1 and October 31. Fellows are expected to make use of the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives collections and to submit a written report upon completion of the research. Recipients will acknowledge the Friends of the Butte Archives in the publications and projects produced from their residency and provide a copy of any projects created from their research.

Applications are due March 1.

For more information on the fellowship and how to apply, click here: https://bit.ly/33V9F6c

The National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) is seeking a Historic Preservation Specialist for a term-limited position. This position will assist the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) as a liaison to partners submitting grant applications for battlefield preservation and land acquisition projects. Send a resume and cover letter to Sharon Smith (smith@ncshpo.org) by February 4.

The Historic Preservation Specialist will assist with developing tools and aids for potential applicants, many of whom are not preservation professionals, and to develop sustainable preservation strategies for the acquired properties. The liaison will also assist applicants and program staff in developing easement templates and fulfilling NPS’s Section 106 compliance requirements, as outlined in the NPS ABPP’s Programmatic Agreement. 

For more information about the position and how to apply, click here: https://bit.ly/3H9hV0y

The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies welcomes applications from students, faculty, and organizations, as well as non-academics and the general public, for a number of awards and funding opportunities related to Western history. The Redd Center places particular emphasis on the histories of the "Intermountain" West regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, or Wyoming. 

Applications for 2022 are due by 11:59pm MST on March 15, and awardees will be notified by May 1. 

For the Redd Center website and in-depth description of awards offered, click here: https://reddcenter.byu.edu/Blogs/redd-center-blog/Post/2022-awards-and-funding-from-the-byu-charles-

We regretfully inform you that Dr. Frederick C. Luebke died on November 27, 2021, in Eugene, Oregon. He was 94 years old. You can access his obituary here to learn more about Dr. Luebke's life.

You can also read more about Dr. Luebke's significant contributions to the field of western history and the WHA in a message written by WHA member and Past President John Wunder. 

Sincerely,

Elaine Nelson, WHA Executive Director

Our Colleague, FRED LUEBKE

Sadly, we here in Lincoln have learned from afar that Fred Luebke has died. Once Fred had retired from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he and his wife Norma moved to Eugene, Oregon, to live near several of their children and grandchildren who resided on the West Coast.

Fred left UNL and us a rich and significant legacy.  He was professor of history and served as the third director of the Center for Great Plains Studies.  He also was the first editor of the Great Plains Quarterly. Fred was one of the founders of the Center and contributed greatly to its success. When Fred decided to step down from his directorship, I was chosen to come to UNL and direct the Center; so I am intimately familiar with all of his accomplishments.

There are at least three major gifts from Fred. First, he helped author and was the primary mover and shaker both creating the bylaws of the Center but also implementing them. They are strong bylaws that provide for the Center’s structure. Above all, the bylaws involve the Fellows significantly in the operation of the Center. 

Second, during the early years of the Center, Fred raised lots of money for the Center’s endowment. Fred wrote the grants and raised matching funds for two $500,000 NEH grants. That may have been the first time two half-million dollar grants were achieved at NEH for one university. These grants form the primary funding for the Center’s endowment. In essence, Fred stabilized the Center’s finances. I liked to joke with him that he raised all of this money so that I could spend it. Seriously though, the reason why the Center functions so well is that strong financial basis upon which it was built; and credit for that is a part of Fred Luebke’s legacy.

Third, Fred was the founder of the first of several publications of the Center, and the most important was the humanities journal, Great Plains Quarterly. He served as the founding editor, and then he recruited the excellent editor Fran Kaye of the Department of English to take over. The Quarterly set the tone for the building of knowledge about our region. It published the first academic papers delivered at the annual symposia developed around the Great Plains. These symposia and articles defined our region, the Great Plains.  Another accomplishment of Fred’s related to the Quarterly was his development of courses about the Great Plains and Nebraska history. Hundreds of undergraduate students learned about the uniqueness of our place. Fred wrote the definition of the area for a brochure that again defined the region. The Great Plains, he said, was a place of distinctive environmental features and a region where diversity defined its history and culture. 

Now if these fundamental accomplishments of the Center were not enough, Fred also wrote a number of profound articles and books about Nebraska and Great Plains history. He directed a number of graduate students who added to our knowledge of our region by writing Master’s theses and PhD dissertations under Fred’s direction.

It seems that I have only scratched the surface of Fred Luebke’s legacy.  But there is one abiding trait of his that I shall forever remember. When I arrived from South Carolina to become the director of the Center, Fred said to me, “I will not be very active with you and the Center this first year. You should have the ability to develop the Center in new ways to increase its academic presence and its contributions.” And Fred was true to his words. He also said, “You know where to find me on the sixth floor of Oldfather Hall. If you need information or advice, come by any time, but I promise I will not intervene.” And there were a few times that I needed his help which he always willingly gave to me. 

Fred loved the Center for Great Plains Studies, and he passed along that love to me and to many of its devoted Fellows. His legacy is profound.  It was formative. He made the best academic, financially stable, and most significant regional inter-disciplinary center in North America possible and successful here at Nebraska.

A tenure-track position in Native American Studies has opened at Humboldt State University! The position starts in August 2022. Don't wait, get those apps in! The deadline is Jan. 7, 2022.

For more info on the position, application requirements, etc., check out the following link to the job post. Early applications are encouraged! https://bit.ly/3ycyiG6

The WHA is saddened to learn of the recent passing of the longtime University of Washington Professor and environmental historian, Dr. Linda Nash. The University of Washington is holding a memorial service for Dr. Nash via Zoom on December 11th at 3pm. 

For Dr. Nash's obituary: https://history.washington.edu/news/2021/11/01/memoriam-linda-nash

To access Dr. Nash's memorial service: 

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