Menu
Log in

WHA LOGO



LOUISE PUBOLS PUBLIC HISTORY PRIZE

The WHA Council created the Louise Pubols Public History Prize to honor Pubols' prize-winning publications, landmark exhibitions, and extraordinary service to the WHA. In keeping with Louise's deep commitment to public history, the Pubols Prize will support the attendance of a public historian to the WHA's annual meeting. The overwhelming generosity of donations from Louise's friends and family fully-funded this prize in the fall of 2017 in its inaugural year.

The prize will include complimentary registration, a ticket to the Awards Banquet, and $500 to offset travel expenses to this year's WHA Conference. Eligibility for the prize includes:

1. Applicants must be members of the WHA

2. Applicants must be on the 2024 WHA Conference Program

3. Applicants must be a practicing public historian and demonstrate that they are without access to institutional support for conference travel.

To apply, please send in one pdf file the following: 

  1. A letter of application (no more than 500 words) stating your experience as a public historian
  2. CV.
Applications must be submitted to each member of the award committee listed below. Please use your last name in the title of your pdf file. Emailed applications are preferred by the 2024 Committee, however paper submissions will also be accepted.


-2024 Awards Cycle opens January 15, 2024

-2024 Award Submission (Postmark) Deadline: June 30, 2024

The WHA office sends notifications to selected award recipients at the end of August. 


PUBOLS PRIZE COMMITTEE

Don Romesburg, Chair
Sonoma State University
romesbur@sonoma.edu


Jessica Kim
California State University, Northridge
jessicamichellekim@gmail.com


Eliza Canty-Jones

Oregon Historical Quarterly

Eliza.Canty-Jones@ohs.org


PAST RECIPIENTS:

LOUISE PUBOLS PUBLIC HISTORY PRIZE

2023 | Paige Figanbaum, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2022 | Analiesa Delgado, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2021 | Michelle Vasquez Ruiz, University of Southern California

2020 | Alessandra LaRocca Link, Indiana University Southeast

2019 | Joel Zapata, University of Texas at El Paso

2018 | Kathryn McKee, Yellowstone Historic Center

2017 | Evan Habkirk, University of Western Ontario


BACKGROUND:

LOUISE PUBOLS

In July 2017 the Western History Association established the Louise Pubols Public History Fund in memory of Louise Pubols. The Pubols Fund will provide financial assistance for public historians to attend the annual meeting of the WHA. It is appropriate that the fund be directed to this purpose, for Louise Pubols was a pre-eminent public historian, who by her example and her exertions increased the profile of public history within the WHA. It is also fitting that this tribute draws together the reminiscences of several of Louise’s friends and colleagues, because Louise, as an esteemed museum professional, understood that collaboration makes for better history – and better living.


Louise received her undergraduate degree from Brown University. She then completed an M.A. in public history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before heading to the University of Wisconsin, where William Cronon chaired her doctoral committee. Following graduate school, Louise worked first at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles and then as Chief Curator of the History Department at the Oakland Museum of California.


Louise is probably best known to members of the Western History Association for her 2010 book, The Father of All: The de la Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California. The recipient of major prizes from the Clements Center for Southwest Studies and the Organization of American Historians, The Father of All demolished long-standing myths about pre-American California as a colorful, custom-bound world apart. In place of this fantasy past, The Father of All showed a family and a society caught up in, yet not wholly overcome by, the global economic and political developments of the first half of the nineteenth century. Its illuminating research, its absorbing writing, and its persuasive revision of California history ensure the book a long shelf life.


As with her publications and exhibitions, so, too, in her service to the WHA, was Louise, in Matthew Klingle’s words, “a fierce advocate for sharing the best scholarship with a wide public audience.” That commitment marked her recent tenure on the Council of the WHA, as well as her stint as co-chair of the local arrangements committee for the 2011 meeting in Oakland. As her co-chair Rose Marie Beebe remembered, Louise talked her into the undertaking by likening the assignment to “organizing a giant wedding reception, except this one had tours!” Thanks to Louise’s “professionalism, attention to detail, and collaborative nature,” all of “the parts and pieces” that let conference-goers experience what the host site has to offer came “together seamlessly.”


“Louise inspired a lot of people in a lot of ways,” summarized Greg Smoak. “She was a historian,” whose “work illustrated how academic research and public practice are part of the same endeavor, and indeed, how each can inform the other and make it better.” To improve our western histories (and our Western History Association), Louise devoted herself to building bridges and sustaining conversations between academic and public historians.


What’s more, added Klingle, “she could make a damn fine cocktail to lubricate any social occasion.” That talent reached back at least to Louise’s graduate school days, where Shelby Balik recalled her “fabulous dinner and cocktail parties.” The “food and drinks were outstanding, but the hospitality was even better.” And so was the mentorship that Louise provided to students who followed her at UW-Madison and who shared her passion for Badger football and basketball teams.


Echoing the sentiments of many of Louise’s friends, Balik concluded that above all, we will remember “how Louise lived purposefully, fully, and bravely -- even as she faced great uncertainty over the course of her illness. In the past several years, she attended and presented at conferences, launched projects, married, traveled widely and adventurously with [her husband] Jay [Taylor], faithfully maintained friendships, and graced all who knew her with her characteristic sense of humor, honesty, generosity, and kindness. We will miss her.”


Western History Association

University of Kansas | History Department

1445 Jayhawk Blvd. | 3650 Wescoe Hall

Lawrence, KS 66045 | 785-864-0860

wha@westernhistory.org 


The WHA is located in the Department of History at the University of Kansas. The WHA is grateful to KU's History Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their generous support!