In the last decades of the twentieth century, New Western historians grappled with conceptions of the “Modern” West, encouraging scholars to investigate the region’s history up to the present. They held debates, panels, and conferences on modern American West topics to discuss their findings and publish them in articles, anthologies, and monographs. Several decades have elapsed since those shockable discussions and path-breaking publications appeared. In the interceding decades, the region has continued to evolve. It is time for Western scholars to gather again and consider how the “Modern” West has changed in the 21^st century.

To facilitate this effort, the Charles a Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University will host a workshop seminar (tentatively scheduled) on June 3-5, 2019 entitled “New Modern Histories of the 21^st Century West.” We solicit proposals from historians and scholars who will author article-length essays and gather at BYU campus to workshop them together. Those essays will subsequently be edited and published as an anthology. All historical sub fields are welcome. The geographic scope of the “Modern West” is broadly defined to include the western states and provinces of the United States and Canada, adjacent borderlands, and areas such as Alaska, Hawai’i.   

The BYU Redd Center fully funds participants’ travel, food, and lodging. This follows an ongoing tradition of workshop seminars that have hosted premier senior scholars and upcoming junior scholars. Recent volumes produced from these events include Utah in the Twentieth Century(Utah State University Press, 2009), Oral History, Community, and Work in the American West(University of Arizona Press, 2013), Immigrants in the Far West: Historical Identities and Experiences (University of Utah Press, 2013), The Earth Will Appear As the Garden of Eden: Essays on Mormon Environmental History(University of Utah Press, 2018), The Era of Reconstruction in Mormon America (University of Oklahoma Press, forthcoming), and Nor Any Manner of –Ites: American Indians and Mormons (University of Utah Press, forthcoming).

 To apply send a 500 word abstract and CV to Redd Center Asst. Director Brenden W. Rensink @ bwrensink@byu.edu by November 30, 2018.