C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Lecture in Western History and Culture
About the Lecture
The C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Lecture Series makes a singularly invaluable contribution — it enriches students, faculty, and the community. Since its creation in 1985, this distinguished lecture series has brought to our community leading scholars who interpret the West in ways that both enlighten and entertain.
This endowed lecture series was established as the “Calvin Horn Lecture on Western History and Culture” in the fall of 1985 with the purpose of honoring the memory of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and to support the study of history, a passion of both Mr. and Mrs. Horn. This endowed lecture series — the only endowed lecture series in the Department of History at UNM — was originally organized by the University of New Mexico Press and honors Calvin and Ruth Horn’s passion for American Western history. The Center for the Southwest has now transitioned as the coordinating organization for the event, which offers a generous honorarium of $1,000 to the featured Calvin Horn lecturer. If you would like to contribute to the C. Ruth and Calvin P. Horn Series, please visit our donation page.
Calvin and Ruth’s vision for the series was to provide the campus and the larger community access to inspiring speakers who brought history to life by providing perspective on the West. By understanding the past we gain new insight into the history of such matters as land use, conservation, access to water, our regional identity, the creative arts, and the actions of historical figures.
Current Lecture
2025 - more information to be added soon!
Previous Lectures
2024 Juliana Barr, Duke University, "The Woman in Blue: How Native Storytellers Turned a Bilocating Nun into an Expression of Indigenous Geopolitics"
2023 Katrina Jagodinsky, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, "The Many Faces of Habeas: Challenging Coercion and Confinement in the American West"
2019 Annette Gordon-Reed, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School, and Dr. Peter S. Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia.
2018 Dr. Megan Kate Nelson, Historian/Author/Cultural Critic, "Why the Civil War West Mattered"
2017 Dr. Ari Kelman (UC Davis), "For Liberty and Empire: How the Civil War Bled Into the Indian Wars"
2016 Dr. John Mack Faragher (Yale), "Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles," You can view the lecture here.
2015 John Gray, Director, National Museum of American History, "American History: What Kind of People Do We Want To Be?"
2014 Dr. Brenda Stevenson (UCLA), "Rethinking the L.A. Riots of 1992: Contested Images of the 'Female' in the Murder Trial of Soon Ja Du"
2013 Dr. Ned Blackhawk (Yale), "The Indigenous West of Mark Twain: Samuel Clemens and the American Empire, 1861-1866"
2012 Dr. Martha Sandweiss (Princeton), "Lost Tales, Forgotten Women, and the Violence of Everyday Life in the Nineteenth Century West"
2011 Dr. Andrew Kirk (UNLV), "Doomtown: Picturing Home on the Nevada Test Site"
2010 Dr. Stephen Aron (UCLA), "Can We All Just Get Along: In Search of an Alternative History of the American West"
2009 Dr. Dan Flores (Univ. of Montana), "Art and Regional Identity in the Northern Rocky Mountain West"
2008 Dr. Sherry L. Smith (SMU), "Discovering the Nations Within: Indians, the Counterculture, and the New Left in the ‘Sixties’ West"
2007 Dr. Paul Hutton (UNM), "Kit Carson's Ride."
2006 Lucy R. Lippard (Art Critic, Author), “Five Acres: Disputed Land and Disappearing Landscapes in the Galisteo Basin”
2005 Dr. Philip Deloria (Univ. of Michigan), “Reading Mount Rushmore: A tour of Landscape and Nationalism at Mount Rushmore”
2004 Dr. David Wrobel (Univ. of Oklahoma), “Through Traveler’s Eyes: Visions of Western America in the Travel Narrative
2003 Dr. Marc Simmons (Author), “Kit Carson: The Family Man”
2002 Dr. Hal K. Rothman (UNLV), “Tourism and the Next Stage of Capitalism: How Experience Became Currency and Entertainment Replaced Culture”
2001 N/A
2000 Dr James P. Ronda (Univ. of Tulsa), “Roads to Santa Fe”
1999 Dr. Richard Etulain (UNM), “Telling Western Stories”
1998 Dr. William deBuys (Writer, Conservationist), “West as Southwest”
1997 Dr. Vicki Ruiz (UC Irvine), “Conquests and Migrations”
1996 Dr. Patricia Limerick (Univ. of Colorado-Boulder), “A Just and Honorable West”
1995 Dr. Glenda Riley (Ball State Univ.), “Family Life on the Frontier”
1994 Dr. Elliott West (Univ. of Arkansas), “Going West”
1993 Dr. Donald Worster (Univ. of Kansas), “Environmental Change in the American West”
1992 Dr. Joan M. Jensen (NMSU), “Creativity and Western Women”
1991 Dr. Gerald D. Nash (UNM), “Western Historians”
1990 Dr. William H. Goetzmann (Univ. of Texas-Austin), “Did Modern Art Kill the Myth of the West?”
1989 Dr. Rennard Strickland (Univ. of Oregon), “Indian Images” (1988-1989)
1988 Dr. David J. Weber (SMU), “The Hispanic Southwest”
1987 Dr. Juan Gómez-Quiñones (UCLA), “Contemporary Chicano Political History”
1986 Dr. Robert M. Utley (Fmr. Chief Historian, NPS), “The Lincoln County Wars”
