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Garry L. Nall Lecture Series

Lecture

Garry L. Nall Lecture Series

Honoring Dr. Garry L. Nall’s exceptional service to WTAMU and his scholastic accomplishments, this Endowed Lecture Series supports CSAW’s mission to promote the study of the American West. Each semester CSAW invites a noted scholar to participate in a community lecture, classroom lecture(s), a question & answer discussion session, and small group outings with students (typically CSAW interns and Western American Studies minors).

Comprised of the fall Western Scholars Lecture and spring Western Writers Lecture, this lecture series brings Western historians artists to WTAMU’s campus.

Spring 2024 Lecture:

  • Thursday, April 4: Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies featuring George Saunders,7 p.m. at Legacy Hall on WTAMU Campus in Canyon

  

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Fall 2022 Lecture:

  • Thursday, Oct. 6: Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies featuring Richard and Shirley Flint, "To and Fro without a Road Map: Which Way the Coronado Expedition Chose to Go, and Why." 7 p.m. in the Hazelwood Room, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

 

Spring 2022 Lecture:

  • Thursday, April 7: Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies featuring Red Steagall, "Values of the Cow Coutry Told in Story, Verse, and Song." 7 p.m. in JBK Legacy Hall

 

Fall 2021 Lecture:

    • Thursday, Sept. 30: Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies featuring Stephen Aron ( more details coming soon)
      • 3 p.m. Student discussion with Stephen Aron.
    • 7 p.m. Main lecture: “Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West.”

For this next installment in CSAW’s Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies, Stephen Aron tours American frontiers from Revolution to the 1880s and from the Appalachians to the Pacific to expose times and places in which usually conflicting peoples overcame their differences—for a while. Running against the bloody currents that have long defined the westward expansion of the United States, this talk detours from this now mainstream view of western American history to spotlight an adjacent face of the American frontier in which a variety of arrangements and accommodations contained violence and abetted cross-cultural comity. His upcoming book of the same name (anticipated 2022 from Oxford University Press), featuring famous figures like Daniel Boone, William Clark, and Wyatt Earp, explores how unexpectedly amicable relations developed in these places and why they collapsed. Its contents also examine the ways in which the alternative histories of these sites have been forgotten and misremembered and what lessons we might glean from the legacy of concord.

Stephen Aron is professor of history emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles and President/CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West.

This event was made possible with support from WTAMU's Distinguished Lecture Series.



Spring 2021 Lecture:

CSAW is pleased to announce we have rescheduled last year's Garry L. Nall Lecture in Western Studies: Ramona Emerson's, "Mayors of Shiprock: Changing the Narrative with Community."

Join us online at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 15, for this anticipated lecture. This event is free and open to the public.

For “The Mayors of Shiprock” lecture, also the title of the documentary for which Emerson is best known, Emerson will discuss how a group of young people in the Diné community have stepped into leadership roles to solve social problems on the reservation. This topic emphasizes the importance of youth engagement and community sustainability, two issues central to Emerson’s story of becoming a successful filmmaker.

Emerson is Diné—or Navajo—filmmaker and writer originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She has her B.A. in Media Arts and MFA in Creative Writing and has worked as a professional videographer, writer, and editor for over 20 years. Emerson has directed six films and just finished her first novel. Based in Albuquerque, where she currently lives, Emerson co-owns Reel Indian Pictures with her husband.

This event was made possible with support from West Texas A&M University's Distinguished Lecture Series and College of Fine Arts & Humanities.

Fall 2019 Lecture:

On October 24, José E. Limón will present his lecture, “Streets of Laredo,” as part of the CSAW Nall lecture series. At this event, Limón will discuss how the song has influenced various genres of literature and popular culture. He will also address the lack of ethnic Mexican identity in these adaptations juxtaposed to the reality of Laredo as a Hispanic/Mexican border place.

Student entries from the “Streets of Laredo” art contest will be on display and student musicians will perform the song.

Schedule of Oct. 24 events:
  • 3-4 p.m. author Q&A (Cornette Library)
  • 7:30 p.m. “Streets of Laredo” lecture (JBK Legacy Hall, WTAMU campus)
  • 8:45-9:30 p.m. dessert reception and book signing (JBK Legacy Hall)

Spring 2019 Lecture:

On Tuesday, April 9, Stephen Graham Jones presented "Growing up Dead in Texas," the next installment in the Garry L. Nall lecture series. 7 p.m. at JBK Legacy Hall. Stephen Graham Jones is the author of sixteen and a half novels, six story collections, a couple of novellas, and a couple of one-shot comic books. Most recent are Mapping the Interior and My Hero. Next is [still secret, as of 3.1.19]. Jones lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado. For more on Jones, visit: demontheory.net

This event was made possible with help from the Distinguished Lecture Series and the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts. Free and open to the public.

Fall 2018 Lecture:

"Coming of Age on a Southwest Cultural Borderland: A New Mexico Story," presented by David Wallace Adams. 7 p.m. on Oct. 4 . at JBK Legacy Hall. Reception will begin at 6 p.m. (light snacks and refreshments provided), and a book signing will follow the lecture.

Earlier that day, guests can attend an author Q&A with David Wallace Adams from 3-4 p.m. in the Cornette Library Blackburn Room.

This event was made possible with the help of WT's Distinguished Lecture Series.

Additional past lecturers include:

  • Spring 2017 - S. C. Gwynne (writer): "On Offense: Writing West Texas from Comanche Wars to Tech Football." Click below to see the:
  • Fall 2016 - Patricia Limerick (scholar): "Both Stranger and Kin: Wrestling--Successfully!--with the Riddle of Texas's Place in the American West." Click below to see the: 
  • Spring 2016 - Philipp Meyer (writer)
  • Fall 2015 - Dan Flores (historian)

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