University of Arkansas History Professor Wins Stegner Award

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Elliott West

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Center of the American West has announced that University of Arkansas professor Elliott West has been awarded the 2013 Wallace Stegner Award for his sustained contributions to the cultural identity of the American West.

The award is given to individuals who have demonstrated achievement, creativity and dedication to the perception of the American West and who have faithfully depicted its importance and unique spirit to others. Previous recipients of the award include Ted Turner, John McPhee and Sandra Day O’Connor. West will be presented with the award during a ceremony in Boulder, Colo., in March.

“Elliott West has made an indelible contribution to historical study, defining and expanding what constitutes American history,” said Robin Roberts, dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. “The winner of several prestigious teaching and research awards, he exemplifies the Fulbright College ideal of educating through cutting-edge, innovative research. We are very proud of his latest honor."

West is the Alumni Distinguished Professor of History in Fulbright College, specializing in American West and American Indian studies. He has authored eight books, and his most recent publication, The Essential West: Collected Essays (University of Oklahoma Press, 2012), serves as the main text of the University of Colorado’s “Introduction to Western American Studies” course. West has also been awarded the Western Heritage Award, the Francis Parkman Prize and the PEN Center Award for his publications.

A member of the university’s faculty since 1979, West’s many honors include the university’s Teacher of the Year, the Carnegie Foundation’s Arkansas Professor of the Year and the Baum Faculty Teaching Award. In 2009, he was one of three finalists for the Robert Foster Cherry Award recognizing outstanding teachers from all over the United States, and in 2012, he received the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award.

West holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Colorado. His work has been published in multiple journals and in more than twenty chapters to books, and he has presented many major lectures and addresses across the country.

The Stegner Award is given every year in honor of American writer, professor and environmentalist Wallace Stegner, one of the American West’s most renowned twentieth century historians. Stegner was involved in many movements to preserve the West through the expansion of national parks and the protection of wild landscape. He served as assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the Kennedy administration in order to advocate for the federal protection of wilderness, and his writing is still recognized for its resonating historical and environmental impact on the American West.