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Winter 2025 Lectures
Lecture titles are tentative and room locations are tentative. Updates will be posted on the individual Facebook Event page (linked below). View all upcoming events here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/BYUReddCenter/events.
Subscribe to this blog or like our Facebook Page for more updates when the event dates approach.
January 23
Steven R. Simms, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Utah State University
First Peoples of Great Salt Lake: A Cultural Landscape from Nevada to Wyoming
11:00 AM
Location: B192 JFSB (Education in Zion Auditorium)
FHSS Event page: https://socialsciences.byu.edu/lectures/first-peoples-of-great-salt-lake-a-cultural-landscape-from-nevada-to-wyoming-2025-01-23
FB Event page for updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/1294312254901829/
March 13
Amy Tanner Thiriot, Family History Instructor, BYU-Idaho
Slavery in Zion
(Annual Annaley Naegle Redd Lecture)
11:00 AM
Location: B192 JFSB (Education in Zion Auditorium)
FB Event page for updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/1480861302594543
Recent Redd Center-funded Awards
Publication Grants
The Redd Center regularly awards publication grants to support presses publishing books on the American West. Presses use these subventions for a variety of purposes such as including additional images or maps, improving production quality, or lowering list price.
In 2024, the University of Utah Press was awarded a publication grant for Fremont Figurines by David Yoder.
Senior Seminar/Capstone Project Grant
The Redd Center offers senior seminar/capstone project grants to support students who are writing papers on some aspect of the American West.
In Fall 2024, Leah Spurlock was awarded a Senior Seminar/Capstone Project Grant for her research on the impact of westward expansion on Native Americans and Kimberlyn Yellowhair was awarded a Senior Seminar/Capstone Project Grant for her research on Indigenous boarding school stories.
External Association Awards
Every year the Redd Center provides funding to sponsor awards administered by a number of organizations. This is a powerful way to extend the benefits of Redd Center resources beyond the scope of what our limited staffing allows us to administer.
- Student Conference Grants (subventions for graduate students presenting a Western North American topic at the annual AHA-PCB conference)
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- Joshua Coleman, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, “Jicarilla Apache, Project Gasbuggy, and the Early Years of Fracking in Indian Country”
- Analeisa Delgado, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, “Escaping the Shadows: Unraveling Missionary Influence on MMIW at the Greenville Indian School”
- Marissa Gavin, University of California, Irvine, “Visions of Sovereignty and Kanak Women”
- Kathleen Goodyear (Zoom presenter), Pittsburg State University, “The Fish Wars of the Pacific Northwest: Tribal Nations’ Fighting for the Survival of Their Fish and Themselves”
- Felicitas Hartung, University of California, San Diego, “Towards Nuclear Disaster: The Moral Responsibility of the Scientist and the Manhattan Project”
- Robert Hoberman, University of California, Davis, “At Home on the High Desert: Great War Veterans and Community Foundation in Twentynine Palms, California”
- Hannah Mooring, South Lafourche High School/Nicholls State University, “The Disney Empire: The Misappropriation and Commoditization of Minority Groups”
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- Mary Lou Fulton Conference Awards (Award for best student posters dealing with the Intermountain West)
- Fall 2024
- 1st place:
- Paige Volz, “Teaching Civic Engagement through Japanese–American Incarceration.” Second place was awarded to Third place was awarded to
- 2nd place:
- Kyle Bird, “Analyzing the Relationship Between Tree Canopy and Snowpack in the Great Salt Lake Watershed”
- 3rd place:
- Asia Reid, “From Ballot Box to Mailbox: The Effect of Vote-by-Mail in Municipal Elections in Utah”
- 1st place:
- Fall 2024
BYU College of Life Sciences
- Plant and Wildlife Science Graduate Student Conclave Awards
- Poster Presentation:
- Leslie Clark
- Oral Presentation:
- Janetta Teichert
- Poster Presentation:
- Arrington-Prucha Prize (best article in Western American Religious History)
- Sarah Whitt, “Wash Away Your Sins: Indigenous and Irish Women in Magdalene Laundries and the Poetics of Errant Histories” American Indian Culture and Research Journal (2023)
- Charles Redd Teaching Excellence Award (enables K-12 educators to attend the Western History Association’s annual convention)
- Sean Cleary (Escuela de Guadalupe)
- Grant Gottschalk (Holy Cross High School)
- Reilly Ben Hatch, (Davis High School)
- Mary Margaret Schroeder (Notre Dame Alliance for Catholic Education & Most Holy Trinity Catholic Academy)
- Jensen-Miller Award (best article in the field of women and gender in the American West)
- Sarah Whitt, “Wash Away Your Sins: Indigenous and Irish Women in Magdalene Laundries and the Poetics of Errant Histories” American Indian Culture and Research Journal (2023)
- Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Award (best general interest article of the year appearing in the Utah Historical Quarterly)
- Kyler Wakefield, "Native Voting Rights in Utah: Federal Policy, Citizenship, and Voter Suppression," (Spring 2023)
- Kyler Wakefield, "Native Voting Rights in Utah: Federal Policy, Citizenship, and Voter Suppression," (Spring 2023)
- Award for Exhibition Excellence
- Wood River Museum of History and Culture, "How in the World Did You get to Sun Valley?"
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Morgan Sjogren received an Independent Research and Creative Works Award in 2024 for “In Search of Home Waters –– Community on the Colorado River.” Her photography is featured on the cover of Hidden Passage: The Journal of Glen Canyon Institute, vol. 30 (Fall 2024). |
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Marissa Ortega-Welch received a public programming grant in 2022 for her a wilderness podcast originally entitled Reimagining Wilderness. This project, now titled How Wild, was recorded in 2024 and can be found on all podcast platforms. |
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Benjamin Williams received a student research award in 2024 for his photography project, “Interiors of the West.” His senior gallery show based on this project, “No Vacancy: Hotels of the American West,” runs in Gallery 1313 of the BYU West Campus Building from January 13 through February 5. |
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Erin E. Stiles received faculty research award in 2021 for her research which was recently published as a book: The Devil Sat on My Bed: Encounters with the Spirit World in Mormon Utah (Oxford University Press, 2024). Congratulations, Erin!
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New Redd Center Publication
2025 Awards Cycle
Each year these funding opportunities support Western-focused research, programming and events, publications, and other activities across the world.
There are specific categories for students and faculty (at BYU and Off-Campus anywhere), independent scholars, public institutions and programming initiatives, etc. Priority is given to research on the Intermountain regions Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, or Wyoming. All disciplines (history, literature, sociology, geology, botany, range science, etc., literally any discipline or approach) are eligible as long as the proposed work will increase understanding about the region.
Applications are due March 15, 2025
Follow the link for further information and application instructions: reddcentergrants.byu.edu
Writing Westward Podcast Update
The Writing Westward Podcast is a monthly author-interview podcast. Each episode features a conversation with writers of new work on the North American West, sampling from a variety of disciplines and subfields. The podcast is hosted and produced by Redd Center Associate Director, Professor Brenden W. Rensink.
Recent Episodes:(full episode list at www.writingwestward.org)
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Listen and Subscribe Via:
Connect with Writing Westward on Social Media
Intermountain Histories Update
The Intermountain Histories project curates local histories on a website (http://www.intermountainhistories.org) and free mobile apps (iOS and Android). Stories are written by students from universities around the Intermountain West, and in collaboration with various professors.
Recent
Stats:- Appx. 850 stories and 72 multi-story tours with more being added regularly
- 17 Collaborating Professors at 10 Universities
- Over 600 student authors
- 19 BYU Student Interns and 11 BYU Student Research and Editorial Assistants
- Appx. 22,000 website users per month
Mobile Apps: 
Apple
iOS / iTunes Store
Follow on Facebook and Twitter for notifications of regularly published new stories!
New People at the Redd Center
- Appx. 850 stories and 72 multi-story tours with more being added regularly
Winter 2025 Visiting Scholar
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Liv Marit Haakenstad
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Liv Marit Haakenstad, AG®, AGL™ was born in Lillehammer, Norway, and grew up a few miles from there. She started doing genealogy at age twelve and has worked with it ever since. For the last twenty-two years, she has worked as an author, speaker, and professional genealogist. Liv Marit has experience with classic genealogy, heir research, and forensic genealogy. She was educated as a teacher at Inland Norway University, Hamar in 1993 (INN), and later added one and a half years of additional education. In 2020, Liv Marit finished her master’s degree in nonfiction writing from the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), specializing in biography. Six years ago she became an Accredited Genealogist® (AG®) in Norwegian genealogy and 2024 an Accredited Genealogist Lecturer™. Liv Marit became the owner of her grandparent’s small farm in 2018 and is spending a lot of her summertime at the farm, living off the grid. She has been married for over 30 years and enjoys spending time with her husband and three adult children. Her subject for the fellowship at the Charles Redd Center is “Norwegians in Utah,” a topic that has not yet been researched much. She hopes to include the information in the bicentennial celebration of the first organized emigration from Norway to the United States in 1825, “Crossings 200,” in 2025. If you have Norwegian ancestors and would like to contribute to her database, please visit her website to learn more and fill out the form: https://www.studygenealogy.com/norwegians-in-utah/
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Fall 2024-Winter 2025 Intermountain Histories Research and Editorial Assistant
Megan Bailey
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Megan Bailey is from Palmer, Alaska, and is an American Studies major. |
Winter 2025 Intermountain Histories Intern
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Jessika Cole |
Jess grew up in South Jordan, Utah, and has loved US presidents and art since third grade. Now a junior at BYU, she’s majoring in American Studies, combining her passions for history, politics, and creativity. When she’s not studying, Jess enjoys painting and exploring the outdoors. She’s working toward a future in Washington, DC, either in politics or as a Presidential Scholar, running an art business on the side. Jess is excited to bring her enthusiasm for history to her work at the Redd Center!
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Other Redd Center-affiliated Research Assistants (Outgoing and Incoming)
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Emily Alger
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Hi I'm Emily Alger, from San Tan Valley Arizona. I'm a transfer student here to BYU and currently I'm studying Social Science Teaching. I love tennis, reading, hiking, and music and I'm super excited to be a part of this project. |
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Brett Bodily
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My name is Brett Bodily, I grew up in Springville, Utah, and I'm currently in my senior year majoring in History. I love cycling and recently completed Logan to Jackson and I will be attending Cardiff University in Wales following graduation studying Welsh History. |
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Hollynd Bowler
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Hollynd Bowler is a native of West Jordan, Utah, and is currently pursuing a double major in History and English with law school ambitions. In her free time, she enjoys knitting sweaters, watching BYU football, spending time with loved ones, and playing the piano. |
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Dezirae Garcia
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I am from Orange County, California, and am currently in my sophomore year here at BYU. I am studying social science teaching with the hopes of becoming a high school history teacher! I especially enjoy studying Medieval Europe and really any world history that shows how interconnected the world is. I love to read, dance, hike, and when I’m in California, I spend most of my time at the beach. |
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Britta Hiton  |
Britta Hiton is a senior studying history and geography. She is from North Carolina and loves all things sports and British. She has loved her time at BYU and cannot wait to attend graduate school next year. |
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Gage Musgrave
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I am from Keller, Texas. I grew up playing soccer and love it. History has always been fascinating to me. I love learning more about feudal Japanese society. After BYU I plan on attending medical school to become a Doctor of Osteopathic medicine. |
