OU Faculty Awarded NEH Grant to Explore Visual Culture of the American West

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NORMAN, OK — Three faculty members from the University of Oklahoma have received a $219,407 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will support a 2025 summer institute, “Visual Wests,” which will bring together 25 higher education faculty members nationwide to explore the visual and cultural narratives that have shaped perceptions of the American West since the 19th century. The program will take place on the OU-Norman campus in July.

The institute’s co-directors are Kathleen A. Brosnan, Ph.D., Emily Burns, Ph.D., and Kalenda Eaton, Ph.D. The team will guide participants in examining visual representations, from paintings and sculptures to films, museum exhibitions and archival imagery, highlighting overlooked or erased stories in the region’s visual history.

“The Visual Wests institute will allow participants to delve deeply into how visual culture has influenced how the American West is remembered, mythologized and contested,” said Brosnan, Travis Chair of Modern American History in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. “We will address not just the romanticized, often stereotypical images of the West, but also the silences and erasures that these representations have historically imposed on Indigenous, African American and other marginalized communities.”

Brosnan says that professional development opportunities are crucial for individuals to enhance their research and bring new perspectives back to their classrooms. “I hope this initiative will encourage participants to broaden the scope of their syllabi related to the American West and their respective fields of study. This could involve delving into more diverse topics and making greater use of visual materials to enrich their teaching,” she said.

OU has a rich collection of archival and museum resources on the American West, and institute participants will utilize these resources on the OU campus. These include the Western History Collections, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History and the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of the Art of the American West. The program will also include field trips to sites like the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, the Concho Indian Boarding School and the Greenwood District in Tulsa.

The Visual Wests institute is designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Nine OU faculty members from African American studies, Native American studies, history, art history and film studies will offer lectures and hands-on sessions, allowing participants to examine artifacts, archival documents and artworks that have shaped the Western imagination.

“This NEH-funded institute offers a unique opportunity for scholars to critically analyze how visual media has reinforced and challenged dominant perceptions of the West,” said Burns, an associate professor of art history in the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts and director of the Russell Center. “By bringing in a broad range of voices and perspectives, we aim to disrupt the monolithic vision of the West and present a more inclusive, layered understanding of its history.”

Eaton, a professor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, emphasizes the importance of considering whose stories are told and omitted in these representations.

“Visual culture has often been a powerful tool, shaping how we understand race, space and belonging in the West. This institute will invite participants to interrogate these visual narratives and reconsider their impact on contemporary views of the region,” Eaton said.

The Visual Wests institute will be held on the OU-Norman campus from July 7 to Aug. 1. To learn more, email visualwests@ou.edu.