Building on a successful career as an academic historian working in Western American history and environmental history, and on an expanding list of honors, awards, and elections and appointment to professional positions of leadership, Patty Limerick pursued an unconventional ambition to apply historical perspective to contemporary dilemmas and challenges. In arenas ranging from water allocation and management to energy production and consumption, Limerick has received abundant opportunities to persuade members of the public to value history as an essential guide in navigating in the present. Inevitably, this work has led to a fascination with the central role of federal bureaucracies in shaping the American West, and to concern about the rise of anti-government attitudes in our time. Limerick is currently at work on a book called The Significance of the Bureaucrat in American History: Hair-Raising Tales from the Department of the Interior.
CAMW 2001 - The American West
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019
Students tour the cultural, social, and natural features of the American West, based on readings and presentations by guest speakers from the CU faculty and from important professions and positions in the West. Designed as the foundation course in the Western American Studies certificate program.
ENVS 4850 - ENVS Honors Thesis Research
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021 / Spring 2022
To be taken in final academic year prior to graduation. Consists of honors research and thesis preparation under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Department enforced restriction: Requires a minimum 3.3 GPA and a declared ENVS major and approval by departmental honors committee.
