The WHA and broader western history community was saddened to learn news of the death of John R. Wunder. The WHA thanks Professor Wunder's family for approving the following obituary, written by Andrew Graybill (Co-Director of the SMU Clements Center for Southwest Studies) for WHA members and beyond. Once it is available, the WHA will also post a link here to John's official obituary in the Lincoln Journal Star.

John Remley Wunder (1945-2023)

John R. Wunder died on Sunday, June 25, 2023, in Lincoln, NE at the age of 78.  He leaves behind a remarkable legacy of scholarly work and devoted mentorship.  He is already missed.

John was born on January 7, 1945, in the small town of Vinton, Iowa, and grew up in nearby Dysart, as an only child.  His mother Mary was a schoolteacher, and his father, Arnold, worked as a mechanic at a local gas station and later owned a business that supplied gas and petroleum products to farmers, small businesses, and individual consumers.  John remained fiercely proud of his rural, Midwestern upbringing, which informed his personal outlook and shaped his intellectual interests. 

He arrived at the University of Iowa in fall 1963 to study mathematics (likely a surprise to many people reading this), switched briefly to accounting (perhaps even more surprising), and then—inspired by a two-semester Western civ survey as well as courses on the U.S. West with Malcolm Rohrbough—gravitated to history, earning his BA in 1967, which he followed with an MA and a JD, both received in 1970.  He then set out for the University of Washington with his wife Susan (née Anderson), whom he married in 1969, “during the summer of love,” he liked to say.  In Seattle he studied for his doctorate under Vernon Carstensen, a fellow Iowan and noted scholar of the American West.  He was awarded the PhD in 1974.

John was a committed regionalist, which is to say that he was fascinated by every region, and it is thus fitting that he taught all over the United States (and beyond).  His first appointment was at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland (1974-78), followed by stints at Texas Tech (1978-84) and Clemson (1984-88), before he settled permanently at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), which marked a homecoming of sorts, given the focus of his scholarship as well as the proximity to his home state.  He held visiting positions at several institutions, including Lewis and Clark College, Columbia University, the Australian National University, and the University of New Mexico; in 1994-95 he was the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the Renvall Institute at the University of Helsinki, an adventure that sparked in him an abiding interest in all things Finnish.

John was recruited to UNL in 1988 to direct the Center for Great Plains Studies, then a dozen years old; he soon made his own mark on the place, characterized by a collaborative approach and boundless enthusiasm for new projects and ideas.  He served in that role for nine years.  John held numerous other leadership positions throughout his career: department head at Clemson (where he swore he could hear kudzu actually growing); associate dean in the UNL College of Arts and Sciences; president of the UNL Faculty Senate; president of the Mari Sandoz Historical Society (a particular love of his); and of course president of the Western History Association in 2010-11, which was, for him, among the brightest of his many professional highlights.

In an era of increased specialization, John’s scholarly range was astonishing—he was a generalist in the best sense of the word, publishing on legal history, the history of Indigenous America, the Chinese experience in the American West, Nebraska and the Great Plains, sports, politics, even historians and historiography.  His publication record was vast: author or co-author of four monographs, including “Retained by the People”: A History of American Indians and the Bill of Rights (Oxford, 1994), more than fifty journal articles and book chapters, and dozens of reviews.  He remained active after his retirement from UNL in 2011, but furrowed new rows, as with a collection of prose poems about the Great Plains that he published earlier this year.  And he had a splendid editorial touch, which he brought to the numerous volumes he helped to publish in a pair of book series he helmed at the University of Nebraska Press and Texas Tech University Press.

But above all, and without a doubt, John would want to be most remembered as a teacher and mentor, work that he loved and at which he excelled, suggested by the roughly 30 PhD dissertations and 70 MA theses he advised over the course of his career, on subjects in—and sometimes well outside of—his wheelhouse.  In the short time since word of his passing has circulated, former students have shared tributes via email and social media.  It is worth quoting from a few of them:

“The word in my mind is generosity—I remember the day I asked John to be my advisor for my MA thesis.  As a new and bewildered graduate student at that meeting (and many others), he offered the advice and guidance and ideas I needed—ideas and interests that still sit with me to this day and are guiding the next phase of the work I hope to do. He was such a force for good in the world.”

“His impact on Western History, Native American History, and the history of the Great Plains is beyond description.  His incredible legacy will live on in the vast diaspora of Wunder students who continue teaching, researching, writing, and shaping our knowledge of the American West.  Indeed, a big chunk of you out there are fellow Wunder-kinds.”

“I'm processing John's passing very slowly.  My life would be completely different if two of his former students hadn't directed me on the path toward John at UNL.  I don't even like to think about the alternatives of the ‘what if I hadn't met John?’ question." 

Let me add just a few words of my own.  I owe my career to John.  Having rolled snake eyes (again) in my job search during the 2002-03 job cycle, John invited me to apply for a late-breaking visiting assistant professorship at UNL, which I was fortunate to land.  During that year, he showed me the ropes—a whole bundle of them, in fact—so that when the position was later advertised as a tenure stream appointment, I was a plausible applicant.  All the while he and Susan showed me and my family incredible kindness.  I loved Lincoln and UNL, and still do, and I’m grateful for my career.  John made all that possible, and I’ve never forgotten it.

John is survived by his wife of nearly 54 years, Dr. Susan Wunder, their daughters Nell and Amanda (herself a history professor), as well as Amanda’s husband Shamus and their son Anders.  A memorial service and a celebration of John’s life and work, open to all, will be held in Lincoln early in the fall—details forthcoming later this suimmer.  For those wishing to honor John, his family suggests contributions to the Chief Standing Bear Scholarship Fund: https://www.nebcommfound.org/give/standingbear/

Thanks to Jon Lauck, Elaine Nelson, and Brenden Rensink for extremely helpful biographies of John which I consulted in writing this piece.

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West (Center), one of the premier institutions worldwide devoted to the history, cultures, and environment of the American West is seeking a professional and innovative director of its McCracken Research Library. The Housel Director position offers an extraordinary opportunity to shape and lead an exciting future for the McCracken.

The McCracken ranks with the likes of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, the Beinecke Library at Yale, the Huntington Library, and the Western History Collections at the University of Oklahoma in terms of the depth and quality of its Western Americana research collections. Holdings include 36,000 books, more than 600 numbered manuscript collections, and over one million photographic images.

Through its collections and services, the Library supports the work of the five Center museums: Draper Natural History Museum; Buffalo Bill Museum; Plains Indian Museum; Whitney Western Art Museum; and Cody Firearms Museum. The McCracken’s rare books, historical photographs, maps, manuscripts, and rich ephemeral collections feature in the museums’ exhibitions and programs and are used extensively by researchers and curators.

The successful candidate will encourage and extend the work of a knowledgeable and skilled library staff of four and a group of committed volunteers. The Director will guide the stewardship of existing holdings and build exciting new collecting areas. The Director will also develop innovative interpretive programs, such as exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and publications.

They oversee the Center’s Resident Fellowship Program and actively contribute to The Papers of William F. Cody (CodyArchive.org), a project of the Buffalo Bill Museum and external partners.

Working closely with McCracken Advisory Board members, Center colleagues, and library team members and volunteers, the Director will build an international profile for the McCracken through networking, public speaking, media engagements, presentations at conferences, and scholarly publications. For use at the Director’s discretion in alignment with institutional strategy are funds supporting acquisitions, travel, personnel, and programming. The Director will also collaborate closely with the Center’s development department to raise funds for the library through grants and donations.

Candidates should ideally have experience in archives development and administration, or a record of involvement with archives and a capacity and willingness to expand their knowledge and skills. Experience working with a variety of analog and digital resources in a research environment is preferred. The Center may provide support to the Director for additional library and archival training and other forms of professional development for themselves and the other members of the McCracken team.

Candidates with a master’s degree in western American history or a related subject will be considered; Ph.D. preferred. Additional Master’s degree in library science, archival studies, or related area preferred. Candidates with a Master’s degree in library science with a deep interest in western American history or a related subject will also be considered. The ability to lead a team, collaborate with colleagues and external partners, participate actively in the field of western American archives, and interface with the public is critical.

Inquiries are welcome.

The salary for this position begins at $75,000 p.a., accompanied by a full benefits package.

Please apply by submitting your resume, a cover letter explaining why you want this position and why you believe you’d be successful in it, and the names and contact information for three professional references to: Terry Harley at terryh@centerofthewest.org. If you have questions about the position or require more information, please contact Karen McWhorter, Chair of the Search Committee, at karenm@centerofthewest.org.

To learn more about the MRL and its collections and activities, please visit https://centerofthewest.org/research/mccracken-research-library/.

2024-2025 Symposium: Call for Papers "Rethinking the 'Indian Wars'"

Co-sponsored by Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University and the Arizona Historical Society and co-organized by Catharine R. Franklin (Texas Tech University), Maurice Crandall (Arizona State University), and Lance R. Blyth (United States Air Force Academy)

The so-called “Indian Wars,” once the subject of great interest by scholars, have become practically the exclusive domain of popular historians. If, as recent work suggests, we cannot understand U.S. history without understanding American Indian history then it follows that we cannot understand Native history without understanding the conflicts between Indigenous groups and the United States. We believe that it is time to “rethink” the Indian Wars—the series of armed clashes in which Native peoples sought to defend their land (at times with the aid of Indigenous allies) from Euroamerican encroachment. By emphasizing Indigenous agency and acknowledging the limitations of an approach that stresses only the power of the U.S. federal government, we seek to complicate this story.

This symposium invites scholars to think about the Indian Wars in new ways. We embrace a broad geographical, chronological, and thematic frame, stretching across the North American continent from the pre-colonial to the post-Reconstruction eras and beyond. We seek proposals drawing upon the fields of borderlands history, legal history, environmental history, Native history, ethnohistory, and military history, as well as anthropology, archaeology, and security studies, among others, while emphasizing such topics as territoriality, sovereignty, diplomacy, economy, peacemaking, politics, violence, conflict, strategy, and memory, along with specific campaigns and battles. 

We encourage submissions from graduate students, early and mid-career scholars, scholars without a university affiliation, and especially Indigenous scholars. Several senior scholars have already agreed to participate, including Ari Kelman, Darren Parry, and Sherry Smith. We expect that all those chosen will work and re-work their contributions in order to place them in dialogue with each other. We will pursue an aggressive publishing schedule to ensure the timely release of the edited volume.

Proposals consisting of a one-page CV and a 500-word description of the chapter emphasizing how it fits the theme should be submitted by September 15, 2023; all participants will be notified of their status by November 1, 2023. First drafts of the chapters, consisting of roughly 5,000 words (exclusive of notes), will be due on September 1, 2024. The symposium will meet at SMU’s satellite campus in Taos, NM in October 2024, and then again at a second meeting and public presentation in Tempe, AZ in April 2025.

Please direct any questions to Lance Blyth at lance.blyth@afacademy.af.edu

Wyoming Historical Society

A Non-Profit Membership-Driven Educational Organization Established 1953

www.wyshs.org

Position Title: Executive Director

Reports To: Executive Committee through the Society President Supervises: Employees, contract labor, collaborates with volunteers

Salary: $40,000-$45,000 annually, exempt employee

Benefits: 10 days paid leave with 5 days additional at the one-year anniversary Health and Dental Insurance 

Job Summary:

• The Executive Director administers all aspects of the Wyoming Historical Society, and supports the Wyoming Historical Foundation, chapters of the Society and members.
• Responsible for the development and implementation of the goals and objectives of the Wyoming Historical Society. Serves as first point of contact for members, chapters, institutions and the public. Any travel required will be reimbursed.
• Oversees administrative activities required in the operation of the Society, including but not limited to budget development and fundraising, management and distribution of Society publications and products (may require ability to lift fifty pounds).
• The position will be based in Wyoming.

Duties and Responsibilities:

General Duties

• Serve as liaison among historical Society chapters, the general membership, the Executive Committee, and the Foundation by responding to phone/email/mail inquiries and attending meetings, as necessary.
• Plan, develop, establish and implement the Society’s programs in cooperation with the Executive Committee, the Historical Foundation, chapter leadership and others.
• Plan, direct and participate in the delivery of support services to members and prospective members, including relationship building, resource identification, and public speaking engagements. Function as the liaison for chapters and potential members.
• Promote the Society, its mission, programs and services in a strong and positive way to stakeholders, including attending meetings, participating in functions, and giving public presentations about the Society.
• Provide support and organization to all meetings and activities of the Board, its committees, and the Historical Foundation.
• Establish, develop and maintain positive and strong working relationships with representatives of other organizations, government agencies, members, and the public.
• Participate in special projects as requested and other duties as assigned.

Marketing:

• Assist in implementation of fundraising programs in coordination with the Foundation.
• Assist host chapter in organizing the annual Trek and Annual Meeting.
• Implement Society programs as outlined in the Bylaws and in cooperation with committee chairs.
• Write, compose, and create the Wyoming History News.
• Assist in the development of the Society’s quarterly journal, Annals of Wyoming.
• Write and submit press releases statewide to inform the public about Society programs.
• Collaborate with the Society’s webmaster in maintaining updates to the Society’s website.
• Collaborate with volunteers to best represent the Society’s mission.
• Maintain and monitor the Society’s social media presence.

Financial and Asset Management:

• Develop with the assistance of the Finance Committee the Society’s annual budgets and long-term forecasts.
• Ensure that the operation of the Society and implementation of its programs are administered within budget guidelines.
• Develop, implement and lead programs to retain current and/or secure additional funding sources.
• Coordinate with the Society’s accountants, the Secretary of State’s Office, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Have a broad understanding of Wyoming history.
• Experience in management of multiple projects, events, and deadlines.
• Must possess strong oral and written communication skills.
• Must be able to collaborate with people from all walks of life.
• Experience is preferred in fundraising, marketing, and public relations.
• Demonstrated success using computers, Internet, email, QuickBooks, and social media.
• Demonstrated experience in implementation of special projects.
• Experience in supervising staff and contract employees.
• Knowledge of the Society and the Foundation.
• Ability to understand financial statements.
• Must possess a valid driver’s license.

The job profile reflects typical job duties requisite knowledge, skills and abilities for this position and is not intended to be all-encompassing. Other duties and responsibilities may be necessary based on future needs.

Please email a cover letter with your resume and three references to: linda@wyshs.org no later than June 1, 2023. 

Historian II

The Montana Historical Society seeks an energetic and talented person for the position of Historian. If you believe that understanding the past is imperative to creating the future, you may find this position is a good fit. At the Montana Historical Society, we are striving to make our work environment a supportive and engaging place to foster work/life balance.

This position participates in the development of a wide range of multi-disciplinary projects and products for the Society which interpret and preserve Montana’s and the West’s social, political, and physical history. Duties include but are not limited to:

·      Conducting extensive and complex research on historical sites.

·      Writing interesting, engaging, and accurate interpretive text that is accessible to the general public. The Historian will primarily write interpretive signs for National Register properties but may also be asked to write text for websites, curriculum materials, community guidebooks, books, newspapers, and magazines.

·      Evaluating and critiquing historical materials for accuracy, appropriateness, and absence of inappropriate bias.

·      Assisting with the production of public programming, anniversaries, and awards, including but not limited to planning and guiding historical tours, the annual MT History Conference, Heritage Keeper Awards, and the Gallery of Outstanding Montanans.

·      Engaging in public outreach at MHS, in collaboration with museums and cultural institutions across the state, and on social media.

·      Creating topical public history projects.

·      Answering questions for the general public, as well as for museum and historical society staff at institutions around the state. 

·      Maintaining the Historicmt.org website. 

 Qualifications

·      Knowledge of Montana and Western history, its patterns, themes, literature, historiography, authors, research sources, journals, organizations.

·      Knowledge of architectural history, heritage properties, and historical places.

·      Experience in creating complex, multi-disciplinary projects.

·      Excellent writing and communication skills, especially the ability to make complex ideas accessible to the general public.

·      Knowledge of historical research procedures, including work within both traditional written and oral sources, data gathering techniques and methods, historical analyses, and evaluations of historical biases.

·      Ability to quickly find and synthesize many different kinds of historical information, to see patterns, and to draw logical conclusions, including about sources’ accuracy and biases.

·      Excellent customer service and enthusiasm for working with the public and diverse constituents.

·      Excellent public presentation skills.

·      Ability to establish and maintain effective professional working relationships. 

·      Ability to work well with a team, both as a leader and as contributing member.

·      Commitment to public history (and an understanding of how it differs from academic history).

Must have a master's degree in history, public history, preservation, Native American Studies, American Studies, or related field, or commensurate experience. 

3 years' experience.

Finalists will be requested to take a writing test. 

Salary $24.90 - $26.40 hourly

Closes midnight Thursday May 18, 2023

To apply complete a State of Montana Application and attach a cover letter.

Home (mt.gov)

Job Title: H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American History

Organization: The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens

 

About the Role

The Huntington Library seeks a Curator of Western American History to serve as a creative and collaborative professional in stewarding, developing, and interpreting its exceptional collection of manuscripts, rare books, photographs, and maps pertaining to the history of the trans-Mississippi West. The collections in this area have been thoughtfully developed over the last century and remain a major focus of the institution. The Library holds 400 manuscript collections that pertain to the West, as well as hundreds of thousands of printed and graphic items.

 

The Curator of Western American History is part of the Library’s unified Curatorial Department staff. S/he/they report to the Head of the Library Curatorial Department and will work closely with other curators with intersecting collection areas and scholarly expertise, including those in the Huntington’s Art Museum.

 

The collections in this area geographically extend from Alaska and the Canadian Northwest, south to the borderlands of the United States and Mexico, and across the continent from the Mississippi and throughout the Pacific Rim. Chronologically, resources span the 16th century to the early 21st. The topical and thematic strengths of the collections relate to missionary practices among Indigenous populations; immigrant diasporas and populations; overland migration and settler colonial exploration and settler impulses; warfare and violence; and Latter-Day Saint migrations to the Intermountain and Far West, as well as into the Pacific. Materials on mining, water, the gold rush, railroads, corporate histories, banking and finance, migrations, and demography record the growth of urban and suburban centers in the West. Recent collecting concentrates on the transformation of the West in response to tourism, recreation, and leisure across the last century and a half.

 

The Huntington welcomes over one million visitors each year to its gardens, art galleries, and library exhibition halls, while also facilitating one of the largest scholarly fellowship programs in the United States. The Library’s reading rooms welcome 1700 visitors conducting research in the collections each year, with some 300 readers working in the field of Western American History. The successful candidate will demonstrate a background of working directly with people from diverse racial, ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, using a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible approach. The successful applicant will also demonstrate an understanding of the role of special collection resources in contemporary scholarship, as well as an aptitude for the focused acquisition of collection materials in this field, and their imaginative interpretation through public exhibition for diverse audiences.

 

Essential Duties

• Stewards and develops the Library’s extensive rare and special collections in Western American History through gift and purchase, and informs the development of the general reference collections in this area.
• Interprets collections for the widest possible audiences (from scholars to the general public) through exhibitions, academic lectures, public talks, tours, conferences, publications, digital initiatives, and outreach activities.
• Provides research and reference assistance for the collection to users (in person and electronically) and participates in the review of Huntington fellowship applications for appropriateness to the collections.
• Works with Library Directory, Advancement staff, Library Director, and Head of Library Curatorial to identify and steward donors and to win and implement grants useful to the collections and the institution.
• Works closely with the ACMe (Acquisitions, Cataloging & Metadata) team responsible for the creation of access tools on collection priorities and the appropriate level of description for catalog records and finding aids, based upon an understanding of the materials and scholarly and research needs.
• Works with Reader Services to promote and develop tools to improve access and understanding of the collections, like LibGuides.
• Establishes priorities and initiates projects for the preservation and conservation of collections, in collaboration with the Head of Preservation, Preservation staff, and the Head of Library Curatorial.
• Advises colleagues in Education and Public Programs on appropriate interpretation of content and participates in programs across the institution.
• Keeps current with relevant historiographical concerns, issues, developments, and trends in professional communities.
• Represents the Library and contributes to appropriate professional organizations at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
• Contributes to departmental, division, and institution-wide activities and initiatives in collaboration with colleagues and support staff.

 

Candidate Requirements and Experience

Knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Specific subject knowledge of the histories of the American West usually obtained through a PhD (preferred) or advanced degree in a relevant discipline (History, American Studies, Anthropology, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience conducting advanced research with archival collections and primary sources.
• Familiarity with library and archival standards, experience with copyright, and managing restricted collections, obtained through an MLIS degree or equivalent experience.
• Knowledge of the rare book and manuscript trade.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, oral, and written communication skills, including public speaking skills.
• Reading knowledge of a non-English language relevant to the region and history of the American West.
• Understanding of preservation issues common in special collection libraries.
• Ability to effectively prioritize competing tasks and excel in a fast-passed, demanding, and engaging research library with a public mission.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a diverse group of colleagues, researchers, donors, and other individuals and communities.
• Demonstrated collegiality, professional contributions, and a record of collaboration.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional work experience in special collections or a research library.
• Experience in acquiring rare materials.
• Experience with digitization and digital humanities projects.
• An established record of scholarly and professional contributions.

 

Working Conditions

• Normal office environment.
• Some weekend and evening work is required.
• Some travel, locally, nationally, and internationally is required.

 

Compensation & Benefits

We provide competitive compensation, generous benefits and perks for all eligible employees including:

• Pay Range: $85-90k annually. Negotiable and commensurate on experience.
• Medical, Dental, Vision
• 403(b) basic retirement plan and optional matching retirement plan with an outstanding employer match
• Hybrid remote work schedule available for applicable positions
• Considerable paid time off, including annual leave, sick leave, and holidays
• Discounts for staff in The Huntington Store and restaurants
• Access to the Museums Council pass, which grants free admission to various museums and cultural institutions
• Free passes each month to welcome family and friends to visit the grounds

 

The Application Process

Visit us at https://huntington.org/careers to apply directly.

Please submit a cover letter and CV/resume as a single PDF attachment. 

You will have the opportunity to submit additional documents on the “My Experience” section of the application

WESTFORD, Massachusetts – The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) announces historic support from The Samuel H. Kress Foundation and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to fund attendee travel to the society’s 51st annual conference from April 18-21, 2023, in Mexico City, Mexico.

 

A milestone occasion for the ARLIS/NA, this is the first time the society will meet outside Canada or the United States. Members of the Conference Planning Advisory Committee recognized the increased need for travel support above and beyond the existing travel awards program and secured $15,000 from the Kress Foundation and $12,000 from the Delmas Foundation. Support from the Kress Foundation will provide thirty $500 awards for conference participants, and support from the Delmas Foundation will offer sixteen $750 awards for new members, first-time conference attendees, or attendees from Latin America.

 

This is the first time the society has received foundation funding for a single conference with the objectives of expanding the organization's reach and increasing access to art-related bibliographic resources across the Americas.

 

Read the full release: https://www.arlisna.org/press-releases

Contact:

Larry Eames

Media Editor

719.255.3929

media.relations@arlisna.org

Job Opportunity: Director, Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections

 

Position Summary

The University of New Mexico College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences (CULLS) seeks a skilled, enthusiastic, service-oriented leader to fill the position of Director of the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections (CSWR). This senior management position will articulate strategic leadership, clear vision, and direction for the CSWR; forge dynamic partnerships with academic departments, local communities, and regional, national, and international cultural organizations; advance a workplace culture that is collaborative, productive, empowering, and mutually respectful; cultivate and steward donors; and provide expertise in the acquisition, processing, management, and preservation of unique collections and archival materials in a variety of physical and digital formats.

This is a full-time, 12-month faculty position with a minimum hiring salary of $82,000 and generous benefits. Faculty rank (Assistant Professor or Associate Professor), tenure status, and salary are negotiable based on qualifications and experience. This position reports to the Associate Dean of Digital Scholarship and Collections. Prioritizing a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization, the College strongly encourages interested candidates who are members of minoritized or marginalized groups to inquire or apply.  

The CSWR specializes in interdisciplinary subjects relating to New Mexico, the Greater Southwest, Mexico, and Latin America and includes the University Archives. Its collection strengths include Native American, Chicano/Hispano, Spanish Colonial, and environmental design history. The CSWR recently adopted the Protocols for Native American Archival Material. The CSWR’s activities are supported by 10 full-time faculty and staff. The department also works closely with campus units such as the Center for Regional Studies and the Latin American & Iberian Institute to employ graduate fellows. The Director must be familiar with and committed to ethical practices in decision-making, have relevant skills, experience, and knowledge of professional principles and practices relating to materials found in special collections.

The director is responsible for the stewardship and promotion of the CSWR’s collections and must possess strong, innovative leadership, collaboration and communication skills, and they must have proven expertise in special collections and archives.  The candidate will have a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and will have a willingness to partner within the Libraries and across the University. The Director will work closely with the Dean and Director of Development to cultivate and steward donors and ensure gifts are processed and recorded with the UNM Foundation.

The University Environment 

Founded in 1889, the University of New Mexico sits on the traditional homelands of the Pueblo of Sandia. The original peoples of New Mexico – Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache – since time immemorial, have deep connections to the land and have made significant contributions to the broader community statewide. We honor the land itself and those who remain stewards of this land throughout the generations and acknowledge our committed relationship to Indigenous peoples. We gratefully recognize our history.  

UNM is a Tier I Research Institution, a Hispanic-serving institution, and the flagship university in a majority minority state. To support UNM’s diverse campus constituents and colleagues, the College affirms its commitment to honor diversity, ensure fairness and access, and create an environment where all employees are treated respectfully. These commitments include supporting the University and CULLS’ JEADI initiatives and the College’s Anti-Racism statement.

UNM is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, Center for Research Libraries, and the Greater Western Library Alliance and leads the LIBROS Consortium of seventeen academic libraries in New Mexico. The College is comprised of the University Libraries, an academic degree granting unit (Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences), and the University of New Mexico Press. The UNM Libraries contain over 3.5 million volumes and includes three libraries: Centennial Science & Engineering Library, Fine Arts & Design Library, and Zimmerman Library (humanities, social sciences, business, and education). Zimmerman Library houses the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections. UNM is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and educator.  

Why Albuquerque? https://advance.unm.edu/why-abq/

Minimum qualifications

• An earned master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library/information sciences program or equivalent, or an earned doctorate.
• Five years of progressively responsible experience working with special collections, rare books, archives, or digital collections.
• Three years of management experience.

Preferred qualifications  

 Applicants with any combination of the following interests or desirable qualifications are encouraged to apply.

• Advanced degree in the humanities, social sciences, or public history.
• Evidence of scholarly engagement with the history and culture of the Southwest U.S. and/or Latin America.
• Knowledge and experience in applying efficient processing techniques in accessing, appraising, arranging, describing, digitizing, and preserving archival collections of varying size and complexity.
• Understanding and ability to stay abreast of privacy, confidentiality, copyright, and use policies associated with archives and special collection materials.
• Demonstrated initiative and proven ability to learn new technologies and adapt to changes in the profession.
• Evidence of effectively leading and managing a special collections department in an academic/research library and successfully supervising faculty (or professional equivalent), staff, and graduate students.
• Evidence of experience with cultivating and stewarding donors, fundraising, and grant management.
• Experience working with faculty, students, and scholars to support their research and instructional endeavors and community outreach, exhibit development, and public programming.
• Knowledge of Spanish or an Indigenous language of the greater Southwest.
• Evidence of effective communication, interpersonal, conflict management, and problem-solving skills.
• Record of librarianship/teaching, scholarship, and service to support appointment as an Associate Professor or Professor.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and student success as well as working with broadly diverse communities. 

Application Instructions

For additional information and to apply please visit UNM Jobs:  https://unm.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/18/home/requisition/24796

For best consideration, please apply by April 26, 2023. This position will remain open until filled

The Huntington Library posted a new job position for H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American History. For full information, check out their website. 

Job Description

About the Role

The Huntington Library seeks a Curator of Western American History to serve as a creative and collaborative professional in stewarding, developing, and interpreting its exceptional collection of manuscripts, rare books, photographs, and maps pertaining to the history of the trans-Mississippi West. The collections in this area have been thoughtfully developed over the last century and remain a major focus of the institution. The Library holds 400 manuscript collections that pertain to the West, as well as hundreds of thousands of printed and graphic items.

The Curator of Western American History is part of the Library’s unified Curatorial Department staff. S/he/they report to the Head of the Library Curatorial Department and will work closely with other curators with intersecting collection areas and scholarly expertise, including those in the Huntington’s Art Museum.

The collections in this area geographically extend from Alaska and the Canadian Northwest, south to the borderlands of the United States and Mexico, and across the continent from the Mississippi and throughout the Pacific Rim. Chronologically, resources span the 16th century to the early 21st. The topical and thematic strengths of the collections relate to missionary practices among Indigenous populations; immigrant diasporas and populations; overland migration and settler colonial exploration and settler impulses; warfare and violence; and Latter-Day Saint migrations to the Intermountain and Far West, as well as into the Pacific. Materials on mining, water, the gold rush, railroads, corporate histories, banking and finance, migrations, and demography record the growth of urban and suburban centers in the West. Recent collecting concentrates on the transformation of the West in response to tourism, recreation, and leisure across the last century and a half.

The Huntington welcomes over one million visitors each year to its gardens, art galleries, and library exhibition halls, while also facilitating one of the largest scholarly fellowship programs in the United States. The Library’s reading rooms welcome 1700 visitors conducting research in the collections each year, with some 300 readers working in the field of Western American History. The successful candidate will demonstrate a background of working directly with people from diverse racial, ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, using a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible approach. The successful applicant will also demonstrate an understanding of the role of special collection resources in contemporary scholarship, as well as an aptitude for the focused acquisition of collection materials in this field, and their imaginative interpretation through public exhibition for diverse audiences.

Essential Duties

• Stewards and develops the Library’s extensive rare and special collections in Western American History through gift and purchase, and informs the development of the general reference collections in this area.

• Interprets collections for the widest possible audiences (from scholars to the general public) through exhibitions, academic lectures, public talks, tours, conferences, publications, digital initiatives, and outreach activities.

• Provides research and reference assistance for the collection to users (in person and electronically) and participates in the review of Huntington fellowship applications for appropriateness to the collections.

• Works with Library Directory, Advancement staff, Library Director, and Head of Library Curatorial to identify and steward donors and to win and implement grants useful to the collections and the institution.

• Works closely with the ACMe (Acquisitions, Cataloging & Metadata) team responsible for the creation of access tools on collection priorities and the appropriate level of description for catalog records and finding aids, based upon an understanding of the materials and scholarly and research needs.

• Works with Reader Services to promote and develop tools to improve access and understanding of the collections, like LibGuides.

• Establishes priorities and initiates projects for the preservation and conservation of collections, in collaboration with the Head of Preservation, Preservation staff, and the Head of Library Curatorial.

• Advises colleagues in Education and Public Programs on appropriate interpretation of content and participates in programs across the institution.

• Keeps current with relevant historiographical concerns, issues, developments, and trends in professional communities.

• Represents the Library and contributes to appropriate professional organizations at the local, regional, national, and international levels.

• Contributes to departmental, division, and institution-wide activities and initiatives in collaboration with colleagues and support staff.

Candidate Requirements and Experience

Knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Specific subject knowledge of the histories of the American West usually obtained through a

• PhD (preferred) or advanced degree in a relevant discipline (History, American Studies, Anthropology, etc.)

• Demonstrated experience conducting advanced research with archival collections and primary sources.

• Familiarity with library and archival standards, experience with copyright, and managing restricted collections, obtained through an MLIS degree or equivalent experience.

• Knowledge of the rare book and manuscript trade.

• Excellent organizational, analytical, oral, and written communication skills, including public speaking skills.

• Reading knowledge of a non-English language relevant to the region and history of the American West.

• Understanding of preservation issues common in special collection libraries.

• Ability to effectively prioritize competing tasks and excel in a fast-passed, demanding, and engaging research library with a public mission.

• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a diverse group of colleagues, researchers, donors, and other individuals and communities.

• Demonstrated collegiality, professional contributions, and a record of collaboration.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional work experience in special collections or a research library.

• Experience in acquiring rare materials.

• Experience with digitization and digital humanities projects.

• An established record of scholarly and professional contributions.

Working Conditions

• Normal office environment.

• Some weekend and evening work is required.

• Some travel, locally, nationally, and internationally is required.

Compensation & Benefits

We provide competitive compensation, generous benefits and perks for all eligible employees including:

• Pay Range: $85-90k annually. Negotiable and commensurate on experience.

• Medical, Dental, Vision

• 403(b) basic retirement plan and optional matching retirement plan with an outstanding employer match

• Hybrid remote work schedule available for applicable positions

• Considerable paid time off, including annual leave, sick leave, and holidays

• Discounts for staff in The Huntington Store and restaurants

• Access to the Museums Council pass, which grants free admission to various museums and cultural institutions

• Free passes each month to welcome family and friends to visit the grounds

The Application Process

Please submit a cover letter and CV/resume as a single PDF attachment. 

You will have the opportunity to submit additional documents on the “My Experience” section of the application

The Transnation & Global History Seminar (TGHS) at the University of Oxford has a call for papers (abstract deadline April 15) for their annual graduate conference. The conference topic is "Diaspora, Identity and Belonging" and it will be held on June 5-6 in Oxford and online. The conference will engage with diasporic histories and identities as a way to disrupt the fiction of geopolitical borders, unsettle the nation as a unit of analysis, and destabilise colonial logic which coerces (dis)placement. TGHS invites our fellow graduate and early career historians and scholars in adjacent disciplines to apply.

For more information, go to: https://www.oxfordtghs.com/conference