What's New Around the Slatta Ranch?
Writers Panel at Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock TX news Last Updated November 3, 2007

    Sampling of Professional Activities

  1. In September 2007, I joined other western writers, including Elmer Kelton, for a panel at the National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration in Lubbock, Texas.
  2. My book, Cowboys of the Americas, forms the basis for a documentary film by the same title, available from King Productions in Canada. Call 1 800 630 7840 to order.
  3. Research Note: During the early part of 2007, I conducted research on and in the Caribbean. The project is titled "Preserve the Caribbean Past." I am compiling a registry of endangered historic places and spaces. You can help. Add your nominations to the Preserve the Caribbean Past wiki page.
  4. In January 2006, I served as commentator for a panel analyzing frontiers and national identify at the American Historical Association conference in Philadelphia, PA.
    5. Rich Slatta at the Tatanka bison memorial, near Deadwood South Dakota
  5. In October 2005, chaired a panel on Hawaiian ranch life at the Western History Association conference in Scottsdale, AZ.
  6. In September 2005, participated in South Dakota's Festival of Books, held this year in Deadwood. To the right is a photo of yours truly at Tatanka, a memorial and monumental scuplture to the bison, so important to Lakota life.
  7. In June 2005, presented a week-long seminar on "Cowboy Life and Legend" at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.
  8. Lectured on a 10-day Caribbean cruise, aboard ms Volendam, in March-April 2005. Can't wait to go again. Use the Caribbean cruise lecture link on the home page for details.
  9. Thanks to funding from the DELTA program, developed an online version of HI 453, first taught Spring 2003 and again in the fall.
  10. In October 2003, enjoyed a 10-day lecture tour in Austria. US and Austrian scholars also participated in a conference on frontiers.
  11. In October 2002 lectured in Moorehead, MN on -- what else? -- "Cowboys of the Americas" and at North Dakota State University in Fargo on the advantages of comparative frontier research.
  12. Hawaii StampBueno! Consultation with the Kona Historical Society on the Big Island continues! We're creating a living history ranch, circa 1891. During our February 2003,finalized my portion of the historical narrative of ranch life. Frontier conference in Vienna, Austria, postponed from March 2003 to October, owing to the Iraq war. Had a great time. See Vienna Frontier Conference.
  13. 5-7 April 2002: "Cowboy Songs and Range Ballads" conference, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody WY: I delivered two slide-illustrated lectures for this year's program, the 20th anniversary of these gatherings: "Cowboys in Pulp Novels" and "Cowboys in Film and Television."
  14. 17 October 2003: Read an online interview with Rich Slatta about "The Mythical West," with Taylor Fogarty, readthewest.com Stamp of Wyoming
  15. 17 October 2003: I've updated the photography section of Cowboys, Cowgirls and the Old West in Cyberspace links. You'll find links to very good cowboy photography books by Jon Kraal, Martin Schreiber, and a link to the Library of Congress "Buckaroos in Paradise" exhibit. My dustjacket comments for Last of a Breed by Schreiber:
    "Martin Schreiber's strikingly direct and truthful photographs vividly capture and convey the allure and the reality of cowboying. No drugstore, celluloid, urban or wannabe cowboys here . . . just the real McCoy. Through Schreiber's compelling images, we share a predawn cup of coffee, blink at dust kicked up by a herd of cattle, hear the sizzle of the branding iron and bask in the warmth of an evening campfire. Any lover of the American west will thank Martin for letting us ride along." -- Professor Richard W. Slatta, author of "The Mystical West" and other books on the frontier life.
  16. Nice to be mentioned: Patricia Limerick, outgoing president of the Western History Association, titled her 2000 presidential address, "Going West and Ending Up Global." She argues strongly for doing comparative history. She singles me out as one of the few WHA members who have pioneered such efforts. Of comparative history, she says "I am pleased that this is a line of enquiry that has attracted or is attracting a number of members of the WHA (like Walter Nugent, Richard White, Bill Robins, Richard Slatta, Willard Rollings, John Wunder, and Tom Dunlap." (Western Historical Quarterly, Spring 2001, p. 21). The big drawbacks to this endeavor are lack of knowledge of other parts of the world and lack of knowledge of the methods required. My book, Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers (paperback version 2001) nicely meets both needs.

    In 2006, Walter Nugent, president of the Western History Association, reinforced the call for comparative study. "This significance of the frontier in American history may well be that it instilled in us the bad habit of building empires. It would be worthwhile if we historians would explore why other frontier-settler societies behaved differently--why, for example, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, or Australian have not been as aggressive, verbally and militarily, as we have. Is it simply that they lacked our great size and economic clout, our demographic fecundity, or our imperial ideology? Were those the crucial differences? Let us compare." [Nugent, 2006 WWA presidential address, expanded as "The American Habit of Empire, or the Cases of Polk and Bush," Western Historical Quarterly, 38:1 (Spring 2007): 24.
  17. On May 9, 2000 the College of Humanities and Social Sciences awarded Rich Slatta the Lonnie and Carol Poole Award for Excellence in Teaching for 1999-2000.
  18. In the spring of 2000, the NCSU History Department won the university's first departmental teaching award. The Biology Department was also honored.

    Recent Publications

    Cover to Cowboy: The Illustrated History
  19. Edited and contributed to a special issue of Journal of the West on "Teaching about the West, Spring 2007
  20. Cowboy: the Illustrated History appeared in August 2006 from Penn Publishing and Sterling Publishing. Nearly 300 photographs, historical and contemporary. Put it on your shopping list.
  21. Coauthored with E. Kalé Haywood. “Enhancing Latin American History Teaching and Research with Computers.” Social Science Computer Review, 23: 2 (Summer 2005): 152-66.
  22. Wrote on chapter and contibuted to another in Teaching and Learning Through Inquiry: A Guidebook for Institutions and Instructors Information on a Fall 2004 book from Stylus Press exploring IGL instruction at North Carolina State University. Teaching and Learning Through Inquiry, edited by Virginia S. Lee. Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) is a pedagogy that promotes student learning through guided and, increasingly independent investigation of complex questions and problems. Rather than teaching the results of others’ investigations, which students learn passively, instructors assist students in mastering and learning through the process of active investigation itself.
  23. "Kona: Cradle of Hawai`is Paniolo." Montana, the Magazine of Western History, 54: 2 (Summer 2004): 2-19, with Ku`ulani Auld and Maile Melrose.
  24. Foreword to Vocabulario Vaquero/Cowboy Talk A Dictionary of Spanish Terms from the American West by Robert N Smead
  25. Simón Bolívar's Quest for Glory, coauthored with the late Jane Lucas DeGrummond , appeared in June 2003 from Texas A&M University Press. It presents the South American liberator as suffering from bipolar disorder.
  26. "Long Hours and Low Pay: Cowboy Life on the Northern Plains" appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of South Dakota History. The essay is based on the keynote lecture that I delivered in Pierre, SD, in April 2000.
  27. Thanksgiving 2001: The Mythical West has been published! . Read about my encyclopedia of western legend, lore, and popular culture, due out next year from ABC-CLIO. Several NCSU students contributed essays to the book. Order the librarian at your local school or public library to order a copy. It's a great reference or upscale present for that special cowboy/cowgirl.
  28. A new paperback edition of Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas, ISBN 0-8061-3384-8, is out from the University of Oklahoma Press. Priced at just $ 14.95 (plus $4.50 shipping), it is ideal for courses in comparative frontiers and/or western American history. Order at 800-627-7377 or visit the University of Oklahoma Press web site.
  29. Connecting Teaching Goals with Technology History Computer Review, Spring 2001
  30. "Taking our Myths Seriously." Journal of the West, Summer 2001.
  31. I edited and contributed to the Spring 2003 Special Issue of Journal of the West on "Cowboys and Cattle Frontiers Around the World."

    Family and Other Activities

  32. Apr-May 2007: Enjoyed two weeks in Italy, visiting Florence, Venice, Dorf Tirol (site of our son's study abroad program), Sienna, Assisi, and Rome. Wow!
  33. Lectured aboard the Regent Seven Seas Navigator, Feb. 2007, during a research trip on "Preserve the Caribbean Past."
  34. Caribbean Cruise, Lecturing and Snorkeling, Spring 2005
  35. Does it pay to advertise? Let's find out. On April 3, 2003, I created a new domain, cowboyprof.com, to commemorate my status as the Cowboy Professor. Ride on over and check it out.
  36. Rich Slatta, the Snorkeling Professor March 2003, the family spent 5 days snorkeling and diving off Andros Island, the Bahamas. We stayed at Small Hope Bay Lodge, one of our favorite spots.
  37. March 2002, the family spent a week of snorkeling and exploring the island of Bonaire. A great trip, but bad news for snorkelers.
  38. In September 2001, Miko joined our family. She helps me write, take breaks, and grade papers. If you find the corner of your paper chewed off, it means that Miko helped! Now Miko has a new adopted sister, Shanti, equally helpful. She specializes in walking across computer keyboards--very creative.
  39. Enjoy a report on snorkeling in the British Virgin Islands
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