I already gave a rundown of the borderlands and transnational history panels at the upcoming Western History Association Conference in Newport Beach, Oct. 15-18, 2014, but there are a number of other panels that I wanted to quickly discuss and promote for very self-centered reasons.
Thursday, October 16
10:15am-11:45am
“I suggest…” A Roast! Celebrating the Scholarship and Teaching of John R. Wunder
John Wunder served as adviser for both my M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. In fact, I was his last Ph.D. student. I’m not sure if he just saved the best for last, or if he got to me and said, “Wow, I can’t do this anymore!” Either way, I was so fortunate to have him as an adviser and I owe my entire academic and publishing career to him. He gave sage advise, was a vicious editor (always much needed with my rough prose), and a good friend. I assume this panel will talk quite a bit about his own scholarship and writing, but also his tremendous legacy as a producer and promoter of new young scholars. He advised a LOT of M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertation. And, all of us Wunderkind can attest that he was fiercely dedicated to his students. He was always available to help, always looking out for opportunities to hand of to us (funding, publishing, fellowships, etc…), uncannily prompt in returning our draft chapters (seriously – sometimes within a day or two, and fully marked up with illegible markings in red ink. I suspect he may be a robot. In a matter of hours he would fill my chapter with penetrating questions, suggestions for reorganization, line-edits, and even catching every stray semi-colon or comma in every footnote. No mere human could catch so many details!), and a warm and kind friend. The academy needs more John Wunders and all of us who had him as an adviser are now merely trying to carry on his legacy and measure up to the example he set. This is a MUST-SEE panel. If nothing else because Akim Reinhardt will be helping serve as roast master, and most everything he does is entertaining.
- Moderators:
- Akim Reinhardt, Towson University
- Elaine Marie Nelson, University of Nebraska at Omaha
- Panelists:
- Markku Henrikkson, University of Helsinki, Finland
- Susan Miller, Lincoln, Nebraska
- Todd Kerstetter, Texas Christian University
- Tekla Agbala Johnson, Salem University
- Peter Boag, Washington State University
- Andrew R. Graybill, Southern Methodist University
- María L.O. Muñoz, Susquehanna University
- Mark R. Ellis, University of Nebraska at Kearney
Friday, October 17
8:30am-10:00am
Indigenous Genocide Studies in the West and the World: A Roundtable
Clearly, I am biased towards this roundtable because I am on it! When I heard that the conference theme was “The West and the World,” I immediately thought that this might be a good opportunity for me to reenter or reignite a discussion about global indigenous genocide studies. My M.A. thesis considered Native American genocide studies in the context of comparative world history and Holocaust history, as did a journal article and anthology chapter, but my subsequent scholarship has moved in different directions. Oddly, those early genocide publications are the ones that have produced the most inquiries. I regularly receive emails for people who have come across them, asking questions, a couple commercial presses approached me to write a upper-division undergraduate level textbook on the subject (I declined), a handful of other publishing requests from journals (one from an Africa/ Rwanda publication that would have been so interesting!), and a MSS review for a book on the subject that I am very excited made it to press (see Alex Alvarez’s Native America and the Question of Genocide.) With all of this still in the back of my mind, I organized this panel as a way to reignite my interest in the topic and hopefully ignite some discussion among other scholars. My point of many of my publications was that North American history had great potential to contribute to broader global comparative genocide studies, but the field needed serious development. The panelists that signed on for this roundtable are all, in a way, answering that call. They are producing top-notch scholarship that links the history of genocide in North America, indigenous genocide, with broader global comparative fields. I am very excited to hear their presentations and see what kind of discussion we have in the extended Q&A between panelists and with the audience!
- Participants:
- Boyd D. Cothran, York University
- Robert Hitchcock, University of New Mexico/Michigan State University
- Brendan Lindsay, California State University-Sacramento
- Benjamin L. Madley, University of California-Los Angeles
- Brenden W. Rensink, LDS Church History Department
- Ashley Riley Sousa, Middle Tennessee State University
Friday, October 17
2:30pm-4:00pm
Violence, Historical Trauma, and Memory in the American West: Anniversaries and Remembering
I had the great pleasure of serving on the Program Committee for this conference and during our deliberations last October in Tucson, the question was raised if there were any topics that submissions hadn’t covered. Someone noted that 2014 would be the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre (a topic I likewise studied and wrote about in the genocide publications) and 100th anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre. Both took place in Colorado, both were acts of violence and trauma, and it seemed like a great opportunity to dig into the historical memory of both. Since it was a topic that interested me, I offered along with a couple others to try and organize something. It was a pleasure to dig around and find some people to participate. As luck would have it, two authors had recently written Bancroft Award-winning monographs on each even: Ari Kelman’s Misplaced Massacre and Thomas Andrew’s Killing for Coal. Both signed on.To broaden the scope of the discussion, it was noted that this also marked the 180th anniversary of Cherokee Removal and Patti Jo King made another great addition. The panel was rounded out with Patricia Limerick as comment and Al Hurtado as Chair. This should be great.
- Chair:
- Albert L. Hurtado, University of Oklahoma
- Panelists:
- Patricia (Patti Jo) King, Bacone College -The Trail of Tears’ End, 1839
- Ari Kelman, University of California, Davis -The Sand Creek Massacre, 1864
- Thomas Andrews, University of Colorado, Boulder – The Ludlow Massacre, 1914
- Comment:
- Patty Limerick, University of Colorado, Boulder