Para empezar, le debo a la gente y comunidad de WHA gracias para el apoyo y confianza que me han dado sobre estos años. Con un gran abrazo desde el corazón, gracias.

In 2022, I began my Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. I was unsure what to expect, what to research, or how my community engagement museum experience would translate to academia. It was a risk, but the journey paid off with fellowships, scholarships, and opportunities to present on past and developing research in history, interpretation, and my constantly developing love and passion for digital humanities.

My WHA Conference History:

The first WHA Conference I attended was in San Antonio in 2022 when I was invited to chair the panel titled Challenging Erasure: Exploring Community Pathways to Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing Black Texas History, featuring presenters Claudia Espinosa, Pamela Nicole Walker, Teresa Van Hoy, and Roseann Bacha-Garza. I’d be remiss not to thank María Esther Hammack for initially recommending me to chair. As I learned more about WHA, I saw an opportunity to serve on the Grad Staff, which included benefits like a room stay and, what is as good as gold to a student, meal tickets. Moreover, serving with the Grad Staff gave me an incredible support network of inspiring researchers at what can sometimes be an overwhelming conference. Where do I go first? How do these elevators work? Have I eaten? All these questions are relinquished when you are on the WHA Grad Staff.

I was immediately astounded by the diversity of presenters, panel topics, and attendees at the WHA Conference. Plus, the intention and accountability with which the WHA addresses its organizational history on the website impressed me greatly. That conference week in San Antonio was unforgettable. It felt like all the stars of history were there, and my conference experience made the researchers and writers of many historical works and projects that I admired real and tangible. Realizing that I, too, was a peer and colleague with professional historians, instilled confidence in me and further inspired my work, studies, and community. I was hooked on the WHA Conference.

My second WHA in Los Angeles was also astonishing. I was privileged to participate in the Teaching Local History “Across Many Wests”: A Roundtable Conversation with Patricia Loughlin, Jessica Barbata Jackson, Sarah R. Payne, Benjamin Kiser, Todd Laugen, Cristina Rodriguez, and Jennifer O’Neal. Including K-12 history topics for the awareness of our profession is necessary for the future of our places because we never know what young people will become after they leave the classroom or museum. I returned to serving with the Grad Staff and attended the Graduate Student Research Workshop. The research workshop is yet another way that the WHA supports students in our research at and beyond the conference.

Graduate Student Prize: Kansas 2024:

Receiving the Graduate Student Prize in 2024 helped me immensely. I am forever grateful to the WHA and the donors who continue to make opportunities like this available to students. Getting support for stay, travel, and food allowed me to attend many more sessions and meet even more outstanding professionals. The concurrent scheduling with the SHA and stay in Kansas City were all expertly planned.

The 2024 conference week was a whirlwind for me since immediately after, I traveled to attend the PastForward conference held by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It was another week of history and connections that only the WHA can provide. Kansas City was the first WHA Conference where I did not work on the Graduate Staff. Regardless, the staff embraced and welcomed me as if I were. I am deeply grateful to my colleagues, peers, allies, and friends I have connected with through the WHA Grad Staff.

The sessions I participated in included the Digital Scholarship Lightning Round chaired by Sean Fraga with presenters Adam Sundberg, Dave Tell, Siriana Lundgren, David Grua, Haleigh Marcello, Johnathan Daniel Laska, and Gregory Payne. I also presented on the Practicing Digital Heritage on Contested Grounds panel with Christy Hyman, Amparo Chavez-Gonzalez, Linda Garcia Merchant, and Shine Trabucco. After our session, Linda and Shine invited me to present a graduate student keynote as part of the Digital Humanities at the University of Houston 2025 event series. I excitedly accepted and am now reflecting on how many of my professional long-term relationships would not have been possible without the networking and support provided by the hard work of the WHA staff, board, and committees.

Conclusion:

My journey with the WHA, from tentative beginnings to impactful presentations and invaluable connections, underscores the profound power of community. From the initial feelings of belonging to the incredible opportunities for growth and recognition, the WHA has played a pivotal role in shaping my academic and professional trajectory. Thank you for these opportunities and for reminding everyone that at the heart of any field of study are the people and connections we forge that truly make it meaningful. I look forward to staying connected with WHA forever.

In closing, if you have received a tlacuache/possum/zarigueya sticker in the past three years of WHA conferences, it was my way of representing the Rio Grande Valley. If you have one saved on your laptop, water bottle, or bicycle, think of me and the RGV.

This October, I was fortunate enough to win one of the Western History Association’s Graduate Student Prizes, allowing me to attend WHA Kansas City with minimal personal expenses and continue to participate in a community that I look forward to convening with every year. This year’s conference was exceptionally full of panels, receptions, and catching up with colleagues. I left with a strong feeling of accomplishment, plans for next year’s conference in Albuquerque, and momentum to continue through the rest of the fall semester.

I arrived at the conference hotel an hour after the opening reception began. Once ditching my bags, I ran into a good friend that I met at WHA 2021 and we hurried over to the World War I museum. There, I reconnected with my former Master’s advisors and met a few participants in the first of two panels I was on. I also reconnected with other Applied History Initiative fellows before heading to a dinner with that group.

I started day two of WHA, my first full day, with the Environmental History Breakfast. The spread was good and the coffee was hot, which is all you can ask. But being around all of my peers is what really makes this breakfast special every year. I sat next to Dale Mize, a fellow Colorado State alum currently at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and caught up with him. As is tradition at this breakfast, we went around the room and everyone shared their current research. It was nice putting faces to names, topics to scholars, and absorbing some of the intellectual brilliance while my coffee kicked in.

After breakfast, I went to “New Visions of Northern Plains Politics: Shifting Ideologies and National Impacts,” where panelists discussed Catherine McNicol Stock’s Nuclear Country: The Origins of the Rural New Right. As a public lands historian, I took away great insights on the relationship between military lands, federal presence in the West, and deeply-reactionary politics. For the second concurrent session, I went to “Doing Community Engaged History in the American South and West” and attended the Graduate Student Caucus Lunch and Meeting afterward. At lunch, I sat with Hailey Doucette, another good friend from my time at Colorado State, and met many of the other smart and welcoming University of Kansas graduate students.

During the field trip sessions, I grabbed a beer with my former MA advisor and talked through some ideas within our shared topic of public lands recreation. We walked over to the Public History Reception, where I continued catching up with familiar faces and chatting about my current research. I then went to the Graduate Student Reception and introduced fellow Montana State students to peers from other universities. While enjoying the camaraderie at the reception, many of us watched a thunderstorm roll through town from our perch on top of the Westin.

Day one was busy, but day two was slated to be even busier. After grabbing a quick lobby breakfast, my MSU classmate, Jacob Northcutt, and I attended “Parks, Public Lands, and Indigenous Efforts to Resist Settler Colonialism.” We had to take off early to prepare for our panel on mountain recreation, but I was able to start planning a Colorado Plateau themed panel for WHA 2025 with one of the panelists of “Parks, Public Lands…” later in the day. The panel Jacob and I were on went well, and, like all good panels, discussion overflowed into the lobby afterward. I had a great conversation with a fellow grad student from University of Oregon about the role power plays in recreational access which we continued while poaching a SHA reception the last evening of the conference.

My second panel, “Rivers, Peaks, and Ranches: Unveiling the Interconnected Threads of Climate, Economic Flux, and Cultural Evolution in the American West,” happened after lunch (back-to-back panels, geez!), so my fellow panelists and I prepared after grabbing a quick lunch at Crown Center. I organized this one by pulling largely from my network of graduate students and early career scholars, who happen to be the people I spend the most time with at WHA. Presenting with them was such a blast; being so familiar with each other’s work, we had a very compelling discussion covering a variety of topics related to the rural West. While still milling around the room after our panel, I met the editor of Utah Historical Quarterly who expressed interest in my work on industry in Vernal, Utah. This publication was at the front of my mind when doing this research, so it was very exciting to make that connection.

After briefly gathering myself following two panels, I attended the CRAW reception, where the Montana State contingent caught up on how the conference was going for all of us. We then filtered into the Award Ceremony and sat next to Jared Orsi, the new editor of the Western Historical Quarterly and my former supervisor at CSU’s Public & Environmental History Center. After celebrating everyone’s accomplishments, I congregated with my fellow mountain recreation panelists (the first one) to grab dinner and continue our discussion on recreation’s role in the history of the West.

After two and a half whirlwind days that caused a latent cold to reemerge, I decided to rest the last day and get breakfast with Matt Klingle, Michael Childers, and two graduate students. We discussed where we are with our research, connections between the West and my home state of Maine, and shared resources for future work. I then raided the book exhibit, attended two panels on recreation and land, said my goodbyes, and took a much needed nap. As a prize recipient, I felt a great amount of anxious anticipation for this year’s conference. Three days of catching up with friends made at past WHAs, expanding my professional network, and sharing my research, however, greatly reaffirmed that WHA is my academic home—and I can’t think of a better one.

Read about 2024 Grad Prize winner Darby Ratliff's experience at the Kansas City Conference:

One of the things I love most about conferences is the orchestrated serendipity. Sitting in the “Time, Temporality, and the Indigenous Environments” panel on October 24th, I felt one of my comprehensive examination reading lists come to life as Brenda Child presented on her new project, taking questions from Louis Warren, Ned Blackhawk, and Col Thrush, all of whose work I read as part of an Indigenous Studies field list. In graduate school, there is so much discussion of being in conversation with scholars and learning where one’s work fits within that field that to see it literally embodied at the Western History Association’s conference this year was such a gift. It was also a reminder that though academic work can seem to exist in a vacuum as we sift through archives or at our respective desks, there is an intensely collaborative and community-based element to it as well. 

While at first overwhelmed by the sheer number of activities, events, and panels at WHA, I quickly settled into a routine of trying to absorb as much of its opportunities as I could. One of my favourite sessions was the first “Roundtable on Keywords in Western History.”. The four keywords were “treaties,” “expansion,” “queerness,” and “Whiteness.” As someone consistently wrestling with many of the same terms in my work, it was really useful to hear established scholars in the field discussing these terms, offering suggestions for reading, and explaining their approach. I was particularly interested in Jennifer Holland’s discussion of “queerness,” given that I am both not trained in queer studies, but I am interested in the way that historians of the nineteenth century can use it as a lens of examining same-sex relationships. In particular, I was interested in her assertion that queer theory dovetails particularly well with western history, given that geographically the West can be seen as placing the fringe as the center.  

This conference was particularly special to me because my home department in American Studies at Saint Louis University covered registration for anyone in my doctoral program who wanted to attend. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an intensely team-oriented person, and so getting to do a conference with my team allowed for a reflection-based component that was helpful for processing elements of the experience relating to my research. For example, I was delighted to discuss  the “Contested Land and Competing Futures in Indian Territory, North and South” panel with my colleague. Dr. Katie Walkiewicz incorporated their family history into their presentation, discussing the nuances of being Cherokee, matriarchal traditions, and their grandfather’s service in the Confederate Army. Dr. Walkiewicz’s background is in literature, and both my colleague and I discussed how we appreciated their approach to storytelling through family history and through history in general, since we’re both more traditional historians.  

Moreover, I was delighted to be on a panel with a friend to discuss the intersections between Native history and the Catholic Church. Carving out time to talk about religious history and empire, it was wonderful to be in conversation with Zara Surratt and Danae Jacobson. Having been encouraged to attend WHA in the first place based on the idea of putting a panel together, it was great to see it come together and for us to be able to share our work and research. Moreover, I’d never been on a panel with a a commenter before, and so I’m eternally grateful to Dr. Jacobson for her time and attention to both my paper and Zara’s, as well as the questions she posed as I work to incorporate this paper back into my dissertation, certainly with her feedback in mind. It’s always interesting to hear one’s work reflected back, and so I was amazed to hear Dr. Jacobson noted how my paper incorporated print culture–which absolutely made sense given the inclusion of a Lakota-language newspaper–pointing out something obvious that being so in the weeds with the work itself, I had not recognized. Overall, the whole conversation made me excited to return to my research and my dissertation, giving me a second wind in a process that can feel so long and isolating. 

In the elevator one night, I was talking with a fellow attendee who said that conferences are great for scheduling time to see friends each year, and I feel lucky to have heard the many enriching papers, to have participated in great conversations and, of couse, to have seen so many new and old friends, both expected and otherwise. In a true moment of serendipity, I was chatting with someone from Stanford University for the first time after the Awards Ceremony, and I asked her if she happened to know someone I used to work with. Imagine my surprise when she told me that that person was flying in that night to present at the Southern Historical Association conference the next day! It was so delightful to catch up and, because both presentations on Saturday, not only were we able to see each other, we were also able to attend each other’s panels. Altogether, it was an incredible week, and I’m grateful for the support of the WHA Graduate Student Prize for making it possible.  I look forward to attending WHA in the future and seeing the folks I met for the first time again, exchanging stories and continuing conversations started at this one in Kansas City. 

The Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed Metropolitan Museum Journal invites submissions of original research on works of art in the Museum’s collection.  

The Journal  publishes Articles and Research Notes. Works of art from The Met collection should be central to the discussion. Articles contribute extensive and thoroughly argued scholarship—art historical, technical, and scientific—whereas Research Notes are narrower in scope, focusing on a specific aspect of new research or presenting a significant finding from technical analysis, for example. The maximum length for articles is 8,000 words (including endnotes) and 10–12 images, and for research notes 4,000 words (including endnotes) and 4–6 images. 

The process of peer review is double-anonymous. Manuscripts are reviewed by the Journal Editorial Board, composed of members of the curatorial, conserva­tion, and scientific departments, as well as scholars from the broader academic community.

Articles and Research Notes in the Journal appear in print and online, and are accessible in JStor on the University of Chicago Press website. 

The deadline for submissions for Volume 61 (2025) is September 15, 2025.

Submission guidelines: www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/met/instruct

Please send materials to: journalsubmissions@metmuseum.org

Questions? Write to Elizabeth.Block@metmuseum.org

The Joslyn brings people together to explore art across time and cultures. Our vision is to broaden our collection, invigorate our programs, bolster our organization, and open our doors wider to everyone. We are art-centered, inclusive, responsible, and dynamic. Be a part of our team. The Joslyn is home to the exceptional Maximilian-Bodmer collection. Individuals working in either position listed below would have the opportunity to engage with this collection through Native community initiatives, research, and interpretation. For more on these job opprtunities click here

Curatorial Assistant, Native American Art

This position is open at the assistant level for a two-year term to support the Museum’s Native American art collections and programs. It offers a motivated individual the opportunity to gain curatorial experience and may serve as preparation for an advanced career in a museum curatorial department or for graduate study.

Assistant or Associate Curator of American Art

The position is open at the Assistant or Associate Curator level and offers a motivated individual the opportunity to create a dynamic program for American art, encompassing collections, exhibitions, research, and interpretation.

To apply for either positions, please submit your cover letter and CV via email to careers@joslyn.org , and include the job role in the subject line. Joslyn Art Museum believes in fostering diversity and equal opportunity as integral parts of its hiring practices, upholding its commitment as an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply for this position. Joslyn offers competitive compensation and a generous benefits package to eligible employees.

The 10th Annual Eastern Sierra History Conference seeks to enhance awareness, enrich knowledge, and generate recognition of the diverse and complex heritage of the Sierra Nevada region. We are seeking presentations on the history and culture of the Sierra Nevada, the contiguous geographic areas of the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin, along with research that may have taken place outside of the region but is related to the history of the area. Selected presenters will have their papers published in the Eastern Sierra History Journal, a digital publication that is sponsored by Sierra Forever and the Claremont Colleges.

This event will be an in-person conference held at the Cerro Coso Community College in Bishop, CA. The Conference will feature keynote speakers in the morning of Friday and Saturday. The morning session presenters will have 40 minutes to speak with 10 minutes for discussion. Afternoon session presenters will have 30 minutes to present with 10 minutes for discussion. Breakfast, lunch, and light refreshments at breaks will be provided along with a dinner on Saturday evening for all speakers and conference attendees. Sierra Forever will sell relevant books during the conference.

Please submit a maximum 250 words abstract along with a brief biographical statement to Michelle Kelly, Education & Events Manager, Sierra Forever at michelle@sierraforever.org by Friday, June 27, 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Kelly by email at michelle@sierraforever.org or by phone at (760) 920-9224.

Dr. Bob (Robert) Bonner, Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor Emeritus of History & the Liberal Arts at Carleton College and longtime WHA member, died on April 16, 2025.

Dr. Bonner's active involvement with our organization began as early as the 1990s, when he served on the Local Arrangements Committee for the WHA's 37th Annual Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. His participation in the WHA continued as he attended and presented his work at several subsequent conferences and published in the Western Historical Quarterly. 

We invite you to read Dr. Bonner's obituary to learn more about his life and storied career. Memorial services took place on Thursday, April 24th, 2025, in Northfield, Minnesota. 

The Abbott-Johnson Award, created through a generous contribution from Carl Abbott and David Johnson, past PCB-AHA Presidents and Co-Editors of the Pacific Historical Review (PHR), will be awarded annually for the best article in the history of the Pacific World, its peoples, and relations (including Oceanian, Southeast Asian, Asian American, and Hawaiian history), published in the PHR or in another journal by a PCB-AHA member. The award honors Abbott, emeritus professor of Urban Studies and History at Portland State University, and Johnson, emeritus professor of History at Portland State University, for their service to the PCB-AHA, the PHR, and the field of Pacific World history.

Abbott is author or co-author of numerous books, including The Metropolitan Frontier: Cities in the Modern American West, The New Urban America: Growth and Politics in Sunbelt Cities, How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America, Greater Portland: Urban Life and Landscape in the Pacific Northwest, and Imagining Urban Futures: Cities in Science Fiction and What We Might Learn from Them.

Johnson published Founding the Far West: California, Oregon, Nevada, 1840–1890, which received the 1992 Pacific Coast Branch Award for an outstanding first monograph on any historical subject. At PSU, Johnson received the Burlington Northern Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship, the John Eliot Allen Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Branford Price Millar Award for outstanding scholarship and service. He is working on a book about the only woman lynched during the California Gold Rush.

The author need not live within the region served by the PCB-AHA (the Western States of the United States and the Western Provinces of Canada) if the article appeared in the PHR. Articles eligible for our other prizes are eligible for this award. The recipient will receive $250. If the article appears outside of the PHR, the author must be a current member of the American Historical Association living or working in the region served by the Pacific Coast Branch.

We are accepting further donations to support the Abbott-Johnson Award. You can questions about submissions and donations to Michael Green, Executive Director PCB–AHA, michael.green@pcb-aha.org.

You may submit articles for consideration until April 15, 2025, to the following three committee members:

David A. Johnson, Portland State University, johnsod@pdx.edu

Megan Asaka, University of California, Riverside, megan.asaka@ucr.edu

Maile Arvin, University of Utah, maile.arvin@utah.edu

Through a collaborative effort of the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands & Peoples of the North American West, the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) department of the MSU Library, and the Friends of MSU Library , Montana State University offers a $3,000 annual award to facilitate research into collections held by ASC.  

The award is intended to defray the costs of either travel to Bozeman to conduct research; to facilitate digitization of portions of a collection to allow a researcher to work remotely; or a mix of the two. Recipients may be academics (including graduate students) or independent scholars who are residents of the United States. We are unable to pay for any costs above the award amount. 

Recipients should have a proven track record of accomplishment (or promise, in the case of graduate students) in their scholarly or creative work.  Applicants may use any of the unrestricted holdings of the MSU Archives and Special Collections, including manuscripts, MSU archives, the Trout and Salmonid collection, or Special Collections books. 

The awardee will share the preliminary results of their work in a public online presentation for MSU students, faculty, staff, and the Friends of the Library during the academic year following the award and will complete a creative or scholarly work within one calendar year from the date of the award. A copy of the work should be submitted to the head of Archives and Special Collections on completion.

Applications should consist of: 

• A cover letter;  
• A statement of purpose of no more than 1500 words describing the project, the collections the researcher plans to consult, and the anticipated final product;  
• A budget for travel, digitization, or a combination of the two;  
• A 2-3 page curriculum vitae. 

Send applications to the Head of Archives and Special Collections, Jodi Allison-Bunnellby April 14, 2025.  

Applications will be evaluated by a joint committee composed of the director of the Doig Center, a member of the ASC faculty, the Head of ASC, and a member of the Friends board.  

Criteria for evaluation: 

• Evidence of an appropriate range and depth of ASC collections to be used;   
• Significance and originality (or a fresh treatment) of the proposed topic; 

• Quality of writing and organization; 
• Applicant’s past record of successfully publishing or otherwise disseminating academic or creative works, or in the case of graduate students, demonstrated promise of success; 
• A well-supported budget for travel, digitization, or both. 

The award will be announced by May 1, 2025. Recipients will receive $1,500 at the start of the research and $1,500 after their public presentation is completed. We highly recommend travel in early to mid summer, when awardees can access campus housing. Lodging in Bozeman is extremely expensive.   

The Merrill G. Burlingame Archives and Special Collections at MSU features manuscript collections on the West and the Greater Yellowstone, with particular strengthsin agricultural history; the world’s most comprehensive collection of trout and salmonid books; select records of MSU history; area-focused books; and a substantial collection of angling oral histories.  

2025 Pacific Northwest Labor History Conference: “Labor in a Hostile Political Environment: What Can Labor History Teach Us?”

April 25-26, Portland, Oregon

Registration Open Now at pnlha.org

Friday night, April 25 Oregon AFL-CIO, 3645 SE 32 nd Ave., Portland

6:00-8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion: “How Labor History Helps Us Understand and Face the Current Attacks on the Labor Movement”

Graham Trainor, President, Oregon AFL-CIO

April Sims, President, Washington State Labor Council

Sussanne Skidmore, President, British Columbia Federation of Labour

Tour, Reception and Social Hour

Saturday, April 26, NECA/IBEW Electrical Training Center, 16021 NE Airport Way, Portland

8:00-5:00 pm Plenary Sessions:

“The Other Operation Dixie: Public Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement”

Will Jones, Professor of History, University of Minnesota

“Malevolent Bargains: The Politics of Immigration Restriction (1920s/2020s)”

Dan Tichenor, Professor of Political Science, Director, Wayne Morse Center on Public Governance, University of Oregon

Bob Bussel, Professor Emeritus, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon

Responses from Oregon Trade Unionists

Workshops/Panels:

•Pages from British Columbia Labor History

•Black Oregonians and the Civilian Conservation Corps

•Teacher Strikes in the PNW in Historical Perspective

•Young Workers On the Move

•Class and Racial Violence in the PNW

•Labor and the Environment

•Julia Rutilla, PNW Radical

•New Research in Labor History and Labor Strategy

•How to Do Local Union History

[Agenda subject to change. See PNLHA website for Updates]

Register now at pnlha.org

Early Bird (by April 1): $45

Students: Free [with student ID]