The Western History Association - 2015

55th Annual Conference | 2015 Portland, Oregon

2015 Conference President: Elizabeth Jameson
Professor Emerita of History
University of Calgary
To learn more about Jameson please click here.

"There is a scene in my favorite movie, Lone Star (1996), which compresses the social and spatial boundary lines of western history. Lone Star , according to writer/director John Sayles, is “a story about borders.” “In a personal sense,” Sayles elaborated, “a border is where you draw a line and say ‘This is where I end and someone else begins.’ In a metaphorical sense, it can be any of the symbols that we erect between one another—sex, class, race, age.” ¹ Eagle Pass, Texas, where Lone Star was filmed, becomes the fictional town of Frontera—“frontier” in the sense of border. In Frontera, the Anglo minority has long dominated the ethnic Mexican majority and the smaller African American community. Borders there both exclude and protect: the international border, the racial neighborhoods and cafés, local class lines, the intimate boundaries of sex, the narrative lines of contested histories, of personal lives..." more

Please click the image to view the program.

2015 Program Committee

Program Co-Chairs
José Alamillo | California State University, Channel Islands
Lori Ann Lahlum | Minnesota State University, Mankato
Karen Leong | Arizona State University

2015 Local Arrangements Committee
Peter Boag, Co-Chair
Katy Barber, Co-Chair
Sue Armitage
Eliza Canty-Jones
Natalia Fernandez
Steve Fountain
Christin Hancock
Tim Hills
Kim Jensen
David Lewis
Laurie Mercier
Marsha Weisiger
Susan Wladaver-Morgan
Lissa Wadewitz
Elliott Young

2015 Tours
Columbia River Environments: Bonneville and Edgefield

Grand Emporium of the West: Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

Walking Tour" The World of Portland's Progressive-Era Women

Walking Tour: Race and Place in an Historically "White" City

Portland's Best Brews Pub Crawl

Click each image to watch a video clip provided by C-SPAN3

Women and Western History

Elizabeth Jameson talked about her research into the roles of women in western American history. She also spoke about her role as president of the Western History Association and the...

African American Slavery in California

Professor Jean Pfaelzer talked about African-American slavery in California. She spoke about how and when slaves were brought West and talks about California’s role in the Civil…

Western History Myths

History professors talked about some of the prevailing myths about western history. The panel was titled “Doing Battle with the Zombies of Western History.”
The zombies,…

Native American Osage Tribe

Professor Tai Edwards talked about the history of the Native American Osage tribe. She spoke about why the tribe was moved from their ancestral lands in modern-day Missouri, and why…

19th Century Detectives

Luke Willert talked about 19th century detective work and the role detectives played in the settlement of western territories. He spoke about why detectives went west and why many of…

Oregon Trail

Professor Sarah Keyes talked about her book project on the Oregon Trail. She spoke about the threats people faced on the trail, and explained how they dealt with death along the…

Globalization in the Pacific Northwest

Christopher Foss talked about his research on congressional politics and globalization in the Pacific Northwest. He discussed the definition and origin of globalization in the region…

Thank you to our 2015 Sponsors!
Coordinating Council for Women in History

Lewis & Clark College

Library of Congress

Linfield College

The Oregon Historical Society

Portland State University

University of Alaska Fairbanks

University of Calgary

University of Oregon

The WHA wishes to thank the T.Buckley Trio for providing outstanding entertainment at the
2015 Awards Banquet.

T. Buckley Trio

Sponsors and Partners

The WHA is hosted on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and benefits from the generous support of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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The Western History Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.