Erstwhile contributing editors Sara Porterfield and Caroline Grego write about their experiences at the American Society for Environmental History’s 29th annual conference, this year held in Riverside, California, from March 14th to 18th, in a dialogue format. In 2019, the conference will be held in Columbus, Ohio, from April 10th to 14th. Introduction Caroline:…
Lately, it’s been hard to escape talk of monuments. The debates over the removal of memorials to the Confederate cause have sparked debates, protests, and violence around the country. These inanimate statues and the very animated reactions to them have provoked discussions, by historians and the public, about the kinds of stories we as Americans tell…
This week Erstwhile editor Sara Porterfield shares what she wished she’d known before starting her dissertation and what she’s learned from the writing process. Until it came time to write my dissertation, graduate school kept me on a schedule with measurable goals and milestones around which I could structure my days and schedule. Once I defended my…
Lincoln Bramwell is the Chief Historian for the United States Forest Service (USFS). In his role as a public historian he has thought deeply about the role of history in people’s everyday life and how graduate students can prepare for a career outside of the academy. This week he generously sat down with Erstwhile to answer our…
Erstwhile is back from our holiday break! This week Sara Porterfield reflects on her experience at the American Historical Association’s annual conference and the relationship between academic and non-academic careers and historians. The American Historical Association (AHA) held its annual conference in Denver over the first weekend of 2017, complete with single-digit temperatures and a foot of…
Erstwhile contributing editor Sara Porterfield compiles a multi-genre reading list of books that explore the minds of white working-class Trump supporters. Last month’s presidential election left many of us reeling, disoriented in a world and a nation we thought we knew. Inspired by this short NPR article and this 2013 study that found reading fiction increased…
Erstwhile’s Sara Porterfield reflects on a summer spent researching the rivers she knows well and the valuable role personal experience plays in academic study. This year marked the first summer in over a decade that I did not spend days and nights floating on and sleeping next to the rivers of the Colorado River Basin. I…
Erstwhile editor Sara Porterfield takes over our monthly links round up for November with a collection of articles focused on the Syrian refugee crisis and the American response to the rash of ISIS-led terror attacks over the past few weeks.
Erstwhile will return with its monthly links round up on Monday, but if you need some tasty reading material for this Turkey Day check out The New Yorker‘s Thanksgiving-themed articles all about this Erstwhilean’s favorite pastime: eating good food. Enjoy the holiday week, everyone!
Erstwhile’s Sara Porterfield reports on the first annual Fool for a Day Award presented by the Center of the American West and the nonstop laughter at the awards ceremony. On Wednesday evening Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor at The New Yorker magazine, received CU Boulder Center of the American West‘s inaugural Fool for a Day Award. Along with providing…
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