BYU Redd Center for Western Studies

Less than 2 weeks left to apply for American West research and programming funding from the Redd Center! Please apply and SHARE SHARE SHARE!

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

A conversation with writer George Frazier about grassland rivers, finding wild places, canoeing 1000s of miles, & his new book "Riverine Dreams: Away to the Glorious and Forgotten Grassland Rivers of America" (@uchicagopress.bsky.social 2025)

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-t23g3-...

Exciting developments this AM:

1. A LEGITIMATE SNOW STORM!!!

2. @cetracey.bsky.social’s new @wwnorton.com book “Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History” arrived in the mail!

(Tracey worked on it as visiting fellow 2 years ago here at the @byureddcenter.bsky.social)

Woot woot!!! amzn.to/3ZIVaf0

Writing Westward podcast tells stories of the North American West Writing Westward is a podcast run by BYU professor Brenden W. Rensink. The podcast features authors and scholars who write about the North American West.

BYU's Daily Universe student newspaper did a nice profile on the Writing Westward Podcast, featuring Rensink's "Don't Sound Stupid" reminder, & quotes from recent guests Martha Sandweiss & @neilmathison.bsky.social, & fellow BYU History Prof., @ccjones.bsky.social

universe.byu.edu/campus/writi...

Thank you for sharing!

Tour | The Donner Party | Intermountain Histories Perhaps the most infamous group of pioneers in American history, The Donner Party’s journey in 1846-47 has been firmly planted in Intermountain lore. Of all the emigrants who traveled the overland tra...

A new 8-story tour on the Donner Party, researched and written by one of my Intermountain Histories project interns, Samuel Watson, is now available on the project website and mobile apps!

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/81

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

Kicking off Black History Month with Prof. Sara Gallagher (@sgallagher12.bsky.social) of Durham College and her book "Black Wests: Reshaping Race and Place in Popular Culture" (@oupress.bsky.social 2025).

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/083-sara-g...

Starting in 25 minutes! Come watch this short documentary and discussion about York, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and Black experiences and belonging in the outdoors.

The annual BYU Redd Center funding season is here and we have INCREASED the $$$ amounts!

PLEASE share this as broadly as possible.

We accept applications from ANY discipline for projects focused on the intermountain states of AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, & WY.

tinyurl.com/2026ReddAwards

Today is our Western Studies luncheon. Our visiting scholar, Christy Spackman, is giving her end-of-the-semester lecture. She’s been researching “sweetness” in the context of LDS and Intermountain West food culture and history.

(The wintry decorations are leftover from a previous college event)

Tour | Girlhood in the Frontier West | Intermountain Histories A collection of stories highlighting the experiences of girls in the late-19th and early-20th century American West

New Intermountain Histories Tour with 6 stories about girlhood in the late-19th and early-20th century American West.

www.intermountainhistories.org/tours/show/80

🚨New Episode Alert 🚨

Buckle your seat belts and enjoy our conversation with author Neil Mathison about his new book, "Airstream Country: A Geologic Journey Across the American West" (@unmpress.bsky.social, 2025).

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/081-neil-m...

The BYU College of Family, Home, & Social Sciences includes the podcast in an article for their annual Connections Magazine. The back cover has a picture of @brendenwrensink.bsky.social with the piles of books whose authors he has interviewed

socialsciences.byu.edu/casting-scho...

BYU Redd Center Archived videos of lectures offered at the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University and episodes of our Writing Westward Podcast.

Amy Kohout (Colorado College) is speaking in 10 minutes at 11:00 MST on her multiple-award-winning book, "Taking the Field: Soldiers, Nature, and Empire on the American Frontiers." Tune in to the live stream!

www.youtube.com/BYUReddCente...

Yolonda Youngs - Framing Nature at the Grand Canyon: Creating an American Icon YouTube video by BYU Redd Center

Streaming live now, Yolonda Youngs’ lecture on her award-winning book, “Framing Nature: Creating an American Icon at the Grand Canyon.”

www.youtube.com/live/tptdxh-...

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

This month we chat with essayist, novelist, and Univ. of Montana environmental studies professor Mark Sundeen about his new essay collection, "Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West" (@unmpress.bsky.social, 2025).

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/080-mark-s...

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month via a conversation with Prof. Ernesto Sagás (Colorado State University, Ethnic Studies) about his new book, "Latino Colorado: The Struggle for Equality in the Centennial State.

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/079-ernest...

078 - Adam Sowards - Taking Bearing and Being Historically Faithful in Public Writing | Writing Westward Podcast A conversation with historian Adam M. Sowards about their weekly Taking Bearing essays series,  "Being Historically Faithful in Public" article, and broader work in public writing. Dr. Adam Sowards is an environmental historian and writer, specializing in public lands and conservation in the US West especially the Pacific Northwest. Much of his public writings can be accessed at adamsowards.net. Dr. Sowards earned his Ph.D. in History from Arizona State University and was professor of history from the University of Idaho 2003-2022. He is now retired with emeritus status and working as a freelance writer. His published books include the following (links to purchase here): Making America’s Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands. American Ways series, ed. John David Smith. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. An Open Pit Visible from the Moon: The Wilderness Act and the Fight to Protect Miners Ridge and the Public Interest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Editor. Idaho’s Place: A New History of the Gem State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014. The Environmental Justice: William O. Douglas and American Conservation. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2009 United States West Coast: An Environmental History. Nature and Human Societies Series, ed. Mark Stoll. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007.   The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org.  Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

An exceptional conversation with historian & writer Adam M. Sowards (@adamsowards.net) about writing for western public audiences. LOTS to consider here for academic writers, grad students, and others.

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/078-adam-s...

Public Keynote Speaker: Robin Wall Kimmerer YouTube video by Northern Arizona University

We are thrilled to have helped fund Robin Kimmerer's keynote address at the 17th Biennial Conference of Science & Management for the Colorado Plateau & Southwest Region this week at NAU. The live stream starts @ 7:00 PM (PST/AZ time) & will be viewable for 7 days: www.youtube.com/live/OmEtm-r...

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

This month we talk about 19th-century photography & re-envisioning the West w/ Robert Sullivan & his book "Double Exposure: Resurveying the West with Timothy O'Sullivan, America's Most Mysterious War Photographer" (@fsgbooks.bsky.social 2024).

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-38yuk...

Day 1 of of the Redd Center’s Outdoor Recreation History in the North American West Seminar is in the books! Papers were put through the wringer, canyons and mountains were hiked, and so far everyone survived the intellectual and physical gauntlets.

Brian Q. Cannon named to Prestigious BYU Chair in Western American History Laura Padilla-Walker, dean of the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, and Jay H. Buckley, director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, are pleased to announce the appointment of B...

Congrats to our former Director Brian Cannon on being named the new Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr., Chair in Western American History!

Read more here: socialsciences.byu.edu/brian-cannon...

🚨New Episode ft. digital, environmental, & urban historian, Dr. @jasonheppler.org (Senior Developer, @rrchnm.bsky.social @georgemasonu.bsky.social), & his book "Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech Urbanism" (@oupress.bsky.social, 2024).

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-wmhpv...

Writers and Presses don't forget to submit your books to the CWWH's Armitage-Jameson Prize. The book must be published in 2024 & address women and gender in the North American West, which includes the relevant geographic regions of Canada and Mexico, as well as U.S. territories, past and present.

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

This month we talk w/ historian @collthrush.bsky.social about his new book "Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific" (@uwapress.bsky.social 2025) - one of the best books I've read in a long while, I read a lot of books!

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-e8h3e-...

🚨New Episode Alert🚨

This month we chat with @williamgrady.bsky.social about his book "Redrawing the Western: A History of American Comics and the Mythic West" (@utexaspress.bsky.social 2024). #USWest #AmericanWest #ComicsStudies #Comicbooks

writingwestwardpodcast.podbean.com/e/074-willia...

Congrats to our 2025 award winners and funding recipients! It is thrilling to see how much good work is being done in so many disciplines on the Intermountain West!

Please share & tag your friends & colleagues to congratulate them!

reddcenter.byu.edu/Blogs/redd-c...

🚨New episode w/ urban planner & architectural historian James Buckley & his book, "City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry" (@utexaspress.bsky.social 2024). Learn how logging linked distant urban & remote landscapes together.

www.podbean.com/eas/pb-cgwdk...

The archived video of Amy Tanner Thiriot's lecture on enslaved Black Utah pioneers, which draws from her multiple award-winning book, "Slavery in Zion," is now available on our YouTube channel.

youtu.be/3t6H3Zmj6E4?...