Research Communications

Lectures on topics such as playa lakes, Southwestern architecture, and the archaeology of the Llano Estacado will highlight the conference on Natural History and the Art and Literature of Place at Texas Tech University on Feb. 17 and 18 at Texas Tech University. The conference also includes musical performances by Andy Wilkinson and a Native American powwow. Host of the conference is the Texas Tech Center for the Southwest, an entity emphasizing and promoting broadly conceived interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches to all aspects of Southwestern-based issues. The event will take place at the Lubbock Science Spectrum and will begin at 9a.m. Friday, Feb. 17, and will conclude Saturday evening.

The Texas Tech Center for the Southwest is a component of the Consortium of Southwest Centers, a group of 15similar research and service units located at colleges and universities across the Southwest. Established in 2005, the Texas Tech center determined that a goal would be to promote the university and its resources beyond its service area. The conference serves as a vehicle to accomplish this task. The conference also is sponsored by the Crossroads Music Archive of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Libraries at Texas Tech.

The Center for the Southwest’s Director, Paul Carlson, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of History, is looking forward to the many facets of the conference. “This conference is the center’s first big initiative,” Carlson says. “The conference will be comprised of speakers from across the state, as well as from Spain, Zimbabwe and England. “I suppose the Charles L. Wood Lecture will be the focal point for many of the conference attendees,” Carlson states. The annual Charles L. Wood Lecture will be presented by Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Ph.D., an associate professor of history at Iowa State University. “This is a rural area,” Carlson says,” and I think the lecture, titled Childhood on the Farm: A Natural History, will be interesting to those attending from the local area.”

The conference also will include a lecture by Allan J. Kuethe, a Horn Professor in the History Department at Texas Tech, and Jose Manuel Serrano Alvarez, from the University of Seville, Spain. The lecture, Royal Finance, Pedro De Rivera, and the Texas Frontier, is a presentation that will aid in clarifying the controversies surrounding the 1727 Rivera expedition to Texas. Another key element of the conference will include a series of lectures, presented by several faculty members, concerning the research progress being made at the Texas Tech campus in Junction, Texas. Carlson also highlights other aspects of the conference including the concert taking place Saturday evening to conclude the two-day cultural event. Andy Wilkinson, songwriter and poet and artist-in-residence at the Texas Tech University Southwest Collection, will emcee the concert beginning at 7p.m. The Native American powwow will consist of a series of demonstrations performed by dancers, singers and drummers.

Carlson is positive about the conference activities and attendance. “Many people have expressed interest in the event,” he says. “People can come and go, there is no cost, and everyone is welcome.” The event is the first of many similar events to come, according to Carlson. The Texas Tech Center for the Southwest will hold more conferences as well as workshops, and will publish books and a journal. This year’s conference will be the first of a series of annual conferences based on different topics. The conference next year will focus on issues surrounding education and immigration. “Hopefully, the conferences will help emphasize the multicultural nature of the Southwest,” Carlson says.

More information about the conference on Natural History and the Art and Literature of Place can be found by contacting Paul Carlson at 742-1004 ext. 225, or by e-mail at paul.carlson@ttu.edu, or by contacting Andy Wilkinson by e-mail at andy@andywilkinson.com.. The Texas Tech Center for the Southwest can be located on the Internet at http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/ttcsw.