The Center of the American West takes as its mission the creation of forums for the respectful exchange of ideas and perspectives in the pursuit of solutions to the region's difficulties. We at the Center believe that an understanding of the historical origins of the West's problems, an emphasis on the common interests of all parties, and a dose of good humor are essential to constructive public discussion.
Patty Limerick is a widely sought-after speaker for a number of Western constituencies. Past public appearances are listed below. Click on “Events” for more information about Center-sponsored events, and click on “Request a Speaking Engagement” if you are interested in inquiring about Patty’s availability to speak at your organization’s next event.
More information to come as it becomes available. Patty will be giving the keynote address on Saturday, April 28th during the closing brunch. Her speech is entitled “Steering Knowledge: Accident-Prevention on the On-Ramps and Off-Ramps of Graduate Education.” Registration for this event is required. To pre-register, visit the NAGAP website.
Nearly twenty-five years after the interventions of New Western History, a brief survey of recent scholarship on the American West displays a diversity of approaches to the concept of the frontier. In a moment in which scholarship across the humanities continues to seek frames of reference beyond that of the nation-state, scholars of U.S. imperialism…
George Sibley, author of Protecting the Colorado River, the Colorado River District at 75, will be presenting on his new book as well as Patricia Limerick, author of A Ditch in Time, Denver, Water, and the West. Both presentations will be held at Colorado Water Congress.
This seminar is free and open to the public.
While the American West has its own distinctive history, that history connects to world-wide issues in many ways. Flummoxed by the seeming scarcity of water in the interior West, the first Anglo-American visitors created a characterization of the West as the Great American Desert. In later eras, especially in times of more abundant rainfall, that…
Theodore Roosevelt: In the Arena of the West took a new look at Roosevelt’s time in the Dakota badlands (1883-87) and his fascination with the American West. Several new books, including Douglas Brinkley’s Wilderness Warrior and Roger Di Silvestro’s Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands, and new research at the Theodore Roosevelt Center on Roosevelt and…
Join CU Energy Club as they welcome industry experts to give an objective overview on Boulder’s possible municipalization initiative. Moderated by Patty Limerick. Free and open to the public. For more information, visit the CU Energy Club’s website.
Join renowned historian, New York Times columnist and MacArthur fellow Patricia Nelson Limerick and DAM curator of photography Eric Paddock as they discuss competing images of the American West and how they affect our responses to art, government policy and the everyday challenges of living in the region. Limerick will present a talk on lessons she…
Doors open at 6:30 for snacks. Visit the event website for details. **Requires event registration**
Presented by Boulder History Museum, Boulder Conversations with Extraordinary People features prominent Boulder citizens sharing their stories. Patty Limerick is known for her work at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado. She is a professor of history at CU. Charles Wilkinson was named the West’s leading authority on natural resources…
The 36th Annual Colorado Water Workshop, “Risk, Opportunity, and Leadership in Changing Climates,” is taking place July 20-22 at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. Patty Limerick will take part in a keynote panel presentation, along with Jim Lochhead, CEO of Denver Water, and Justice Gregory Hobbs, Colorado Supreme Court. Together, they will discuss “Water…
Patty Limerick will present a session at the OAH Community College Workshop in Denver on June 9. Her talk is titled “A Ditch in Time: The Lessons of Water in Denver, Colorado.” More information is available at the workshop website. **Requires event registration**
Tesoro Cultural Center Historic Lecture and Dinner Series, “Breathe! A Colorado and U.S. history of lung disease and cures,” with Dr. Charles Scoggin, Morrison, CO **Requires event registration**
Modern Genocide Conference, Mesa State College, Grand Junction, CO
Frasier Meadows Sustainability Seminar, “No Country for Old Habits: The Denver Water Board and the Two Forks Dam,” Boulder, CO **Free and open to the public. This event will take place on the 4th floor Assembly Room at Frasier Meadows. Parking is on the west side of the building.**
In the Fall of 2012, Fulcrum Press will publish Patty Limerick’s new book, A Ditch in Time: The City, the West, and Water, that will bring the Denver water case study into the big picture of regional and national history. This course will provide a “sneak preview” of the book, examine the central role of water…
Patty Limerick provided the keynote address for the Peak to Prairie Landscape Symposium in Colorado Springs, CO.
Patty Limerick presented a program at Douglas County Public Libraries with John Hendrick, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer of the South Metro Water Supply Authority. The talk, “Insights on Front Range Water Supplies,” was open to the public.
Patty Limerick was a featured speaker at the 90th National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference in Denver, CO.
Patty Limerick co-presented a General Session with Butch Blazer at the Society of American Foresters Convention, “Forests & People: A Watershed Event,” in Albuquerque, NM.
Stewart Udall, Interior Secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died recently in Santa Fe. He was an inspiration to many conservationists. Patty Limerick, of the Center of the American West, talks about her friend with Ryan Warner.
Since 1998, the Mark O. Hatfield Distinguished Historians Forum, presented by the Oregon Historical Society, has provided a broad perspective on United States history by presenting the nation’s top scholars and writers. Most featured lecturers have won a Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award for their writing, and many are among the most revered academics…
Patricia Nelson Limerick is the Faculty Director and Chair of the Board for the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, where she is also a Professor of History. She has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between academics and the general public and to demonstrating the benefits of applying historical…
This lecture was a joint program between Patty Limerick and Erin Hogan. Patty provided an understanding of the American West, the idea of Manifest Destiny, and the legacy of westward expansion, followed by Erin’s segment, based on her book, Spiral Jetta. Chicago Humanities Festival Artistic Director Ren Weschler then moderated audience questions.
Executive Order 9066, which authorized the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, did a lasting injustice to all American citizens, whatever their ethnicity. Patricia Limerick, Ph.D., Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, argued that memories of the camps…
Patty Limerick spoke at a Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Special Institute on Surface Use for Mineral Development in the New West. The conference was held in Westminster, Colorado, February 7 and 8, 2008.
Patty Limerick moderated a discussion about the changes in consumption and demand of fossil fuels in the American West.
KTNU interviewed Patty Limerick and Ivan Doig. Ivan Doig received the Wallace Stegner Award from the Center of the American West for his Western-American writing, and most recent book, This House of Sky.
Patty Limerick was the featured interview on the show and spoke about her earlier prediction about the West. Years earlier she had predicted that the West’s reliance on mining, logging, and ranching would change, and the new West would be dominated by people who would both recreate in and preserve the Western environment.
Patty Limerick was the keynote speaker for the Oregon Planning Institute’s conference at the University of Oregon on September 13, 2007.
