Public Engagement
Students Develop ‘Grizzlies for Good’ Exhibit
A group of UM students whitewashes “the M” on Mount Sentinel, 1957. Photo courtesy of the Mansfield Archives and Special Collections. In 1893, the Montana legislature chartered the University of Montana to “provide…to young men and women, on equal terms,…
Students present at NCPH
In April, three of our graduate students attended the National Council on Public History (NCPH) annual conference in Salt Lake City. In addition to attending talks on topics ranging from archives and collective memory to interstate visitor centers and re-interpreting…
Student documentary premieres
For two years, graduate student Dylan Yonce has been collaborating with others on a documentary, The Bodies Beneath Us, about two forgotten cemeteries in Missoula’s Rattlesnake neighborhood. The documentary will premier at the Roxy Theater May 6 & 13th at 7:30 PM….
$200k anonymous gift
An anonymous alum has donated $200,000 to our H. Duane Hampton Public History Program! To read more about this very generous donation and what it means for the public history program, check out this UM news story….
Fredrickson on C-SPAN
C-SPAN came to UM to record Leif Fredrickson’s lecture on the “Missoula Free Speech Fight of 1909” as part of C-SPAN’s “Lectures in History” series….
Blue Death broadcast
Several UM public history interns worked on Dee Garceau’s documentary Blue Death: The 1918 Influenza in Montana. The film will be broadcast on Montana PBS, Thursday, March 28 at 7pm, as well as March 31 at 10 am and April…
Haney to be Humanities Montana presenter
Former UM public history student Austin Haney has been selected as a presenter for Humanities Montana. Congratulations, Austin!…
MacEwan researches, writes conservation bios
PhD candidate and public history student Kym MacEwan has completed a project researching and writing the biographies of leading conservationists in Montana. You can read some of the bios MacEwan worked on at the Missoula Conservation Roundtable website….
Wiltse’s research featured in the New York Times
Professor Jeff Wiltse’s pathbreaking Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools (UNC, 2008) and his subsequent work on swimming and racial inequality in the U.S. continue to shape public conversations about racial conflict at public pools and drowning disparities…
Etier’s “Carnal Enterprises” tour launched
Former public history student Sophia Etier has been working with Unseen Missoula to launch a new tour about the “restricted district” in Missoula: the areas where certain people (e.g., the Chinese) and certain types of activities (e.g., sex work) were…
National award for COVID-19 Documentation Project
The Missoula County COVID-19 Documentation Project received the Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties. The project was the work of many local organizations and indviduals. Funding for the project came through Missoula County and the UM Mansfield Library…
Davies in the Missoulian
Wade Davies discusses the history of Native America basketball in a video with the Missoulian….
Fritz gives “Lincoln Day” address
Professor emeritus Harry Fritz gave a talk on Abraham Lincoln at The Gild for Lincoln’s birthday….
Summey talk: “The Life of Elreta Melton Alexander”
UM Alumni Dr. Virginia Summey came to the University of Montana Campus via the UM Humanities Institute to give a talk about Elreta Melton Alexander, a black female lawyer and judge in North Carolina during the mid-twentieth century. The talk…
Fredrickson interviewed on NPR
National Public Radio’s radio magazine program, Here & Now, interviewed Leif Fredrickson on the history of the EPA during the Ronald Reagan adminsitration for a series called “Permanent Capture.“…
Mullan Monuments walking tour with Fredrickson
UM history professor Leif Fredrickson gave a walk and talk tour at Milltown State Park about the history of the John Mullan monuments that were erected in Missoula, Bonner and across Montana in the nineteen teens. Fredrickson discussed the background…
New York Times article featuring Jeff Wiltse: ‘Swimming Wasn’t For Us’
UM professor of history Jeff Wiltse was featured in an article by Campbell Robertson for the New York Times, “‘Swimming Wasn’t For Us’” about the nation’s first black-owned swimming club. The Nile Swim Club opened in 1959 making it the…
Zimmer publishes op-ed in Washington Post
UM History Visiting Professor Eric Zimmer published an op-ed in the Washington Post titled “Can the Indigenous #Landback Movement Secure Self-Determination?” Zimmer connects his research on the history of the Meskwaki Nation to the modern #Landback movement, which has seen…
Jabour op-ed: “Abortion opponents are gunning for contraception, too”
UM history Professor Anya Jabour wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about Katharine Bement Davis, a sex researcher from the early-mid nineteenth century. In melding the past and present, Jabour used Davis’s story and contentious work to illuminate the…
Fredrickson publishes op-ed in Washington Post
Leif Fredrickson published an op-ed in the Washington Post titled “Supreme Court could thwart EPA’s ability to address climate change,” based on Fredrickson’s research into the history of the EPA….
Podcast interview with Kyle Volk: “Maine Law and the Rum Riot”
Podbean Mainley History Podcast released an interview with Professor Kyle Volk, The Maine Law and Rum Riot, about the state of Maine and prohibition in the 19th century. Listen to the podcast interview here….
Podcast interview with Kyle Volk: “Prohibition in the 1850s”
The Unsung History Podcast featured Professor Kyle Volk for an episode, Prohibition in the 1850s, about prohibition and alcohol in American history. Maine passed the first prohibition law in the early 1950s and 12 other states closely followed suit. This…
Article by Anya Jabour: “It’s Up to the Women”
Former director of the Public History Program at UM, Professor Anya Jabour, wrote an article, “It’s Up to the Women,” for the Eleanor Roosevelt Historic Site. The article dives into Eleanor Roosevelt’s life and her introduction to women’s rights, activism,…
