Research and Region Lectures announced; Plains alliance and center join

The 2007-08 Research and Region Lectures in the Plains Humanities Alliance mark the beginning of a new partnership between the Plains Humanities Alliance and the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The alliance became part of the center in June, reflecting the common goals and the focus of both projects in the preservation of the region's cultural heritage. Plains Humanities Alliance "Research and Region" lectures are William Cronon on Sept. 27 and Thomas Frank on March 25, 2008.

"As our goals and projects focused more on the digital preservation of the cultural heritage of the Great Plains region, it seemed appropriate for us to become aligned with the long-established UNL Center for Great Plains Studies," said Timothy R. Mahoney, Plains Humanities Alliance project administrator and UNL history professor. In 2002, the Plains Humanities Alliance was one of nine regional centers established by the National Endowment for the Humanities to support research, curriculum development, and humanities programs. The late Susan Rosowski, professor of English; and John Wunder, professor of history and journalism, were the founding directors of the Alliance.

Mahoney, who has served as head of the alliance since 2004, said, "Perhaps no region in the United States has more fertile ground for the cultivation of regionalist thinking than the Great Plains. That's why we established the Research and Region Lectures: to bring scholars to the UNL campus to discuss a wide range of topics relating to the Great Plains, plains regions, and regionalism in general."

"Incorporating the Plains Humanities Alliance into the Center for Great Plains Studies made sense economically and programmatically in that we could reduce duplication of our efforts while combining our resources to support PHA's development of digital initiatives," said James Stubbendieck, director of the Center for Great Plains Studies.

Following is the schedule for the 2007-08 Research and Region Lectures. Each lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be held at the UNL Nebraska Union, 14th & R Streets in Lincoln.

Sept. 27: William Cronon, "The Portage: How to Read a Landscape." Cronon is the Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History, Geography and Environmental Studies and Vilas Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of "Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature" (1996). He is researching the land between the Fox and Wisconsin rivers on which the small town of Portage, Wisconsin, was established. Like other portages that traverse two watersheds, the area has been a key region in the patterns of human migration, transportation, and exchange since humans first entered the area after the last Ice Age. Cronon's goal has been to write a complete history of the place from the glaciers to the present, viewed through the prism of individuals' personal memories and stories. He is particularly interested in exploring how people's sense of place is shaped by the stories they tell about their homes, their lives, and the landscapes they inhabit.

March 25: Thomas C. Frank, "Conservative America and the Great Plains." Frank is the author of "What's the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America" (2004), "One Market Under God" (2000), and "The Conquest of Cool" (1997). Born in Kansas, he now resides in Washington, D.C., where he is a political commentator, the editor of The Baffler magazine, and is at work on a new book about conservative governance, scheduled to be published in 2008.

In the words of the late Molly Ivins, humor and political columnist: "A heartland populist, Frank is hilariously funny on what makes us red-staters different from blue-staters (not), and he actually knows evangelical Christians, anti-abortion activists, gun-nuts, and Bubbas. I promise y'all, this is the only way to understand why so many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic and political interests. And Frank explores the subject with scholarship, understanding, passion, and -- thank you, Mark Twain --such tart humor."

All Research and Region Lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Center at (402) 472-3082; Web site is www.unl.edu/plains.

Contact:James Stubbendieck, director, Center for Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3082 ; Timothy Mahoney, Project Administrator, Plains Humanities Alliance, Center for Great Plains Studies, (402) 472- 9478