CWU History Department

01/24/2024

Ellensburg native, CWU History Department graduate, and retired University of Washington-Tacoma professor Michael Allen has published his newest book on Western history: Mississippi River Valley: The Course of American Civilization, with the Iowa State University Digital Press. Allen is an expert on the history of American rodeo and is a founder of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Iowa State University Digital Press. Iowa State University Library. 199 Parks Library, 701 Morrill Rd, Ames, IA 50011-2102, USA.

01/17/2024

Valerie Paschen, who graduated from the CWU History Department, received her master’s degree in special education from the University of New Mexico on December 15, 2023 summa cm laude and with distinction. She now teaches third grade special education in New Mexico.

01/04/2024

A view of the future. Looking south from the History Department's new suite of offices on the 4th floor of the Psychology Building shows our former home, the L&L Building being prepared for demolition. The former Flag Plaza is now a sea of mud and dead branches. Someday, the new History Department Building will rise from the chaos.

01/03/2024

Why is Eastern Washington so different?

On a map, the Channeled Scablands look like a couple of melting gray jellyfish draped across Eastern Washington. The tentacles are geological scars.

12/15/2023

One hundred years ago.

Most of the Klan’s victims were African American, but many other groups have been targeted during the hate group’s century and a half of history.

12/15/2023

Rolling with the punches.

William Holly has lived in many places, but Arizona is the place he has felt most at home. When applying to PhD programs, Holly knew he would be researching the sacred ancestral lands in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, so getting into ASU’s history program was ideal. “It made sense to be...

12/15/2023

Alyson Roy received her B.A degree from the CWU History Department in 2006 and her doctorate on Roman history from the University of Washington in 2017. Currently, she is a member of the University of Idaho History Department. The publication of her first book, on the history of the Roman Empire, was just announced. Congratulations!

Rome was an empire of images, especially images that bolstered their imperial identity. Visual and material items portraying battles, myths, captives, trophies, and triumphal parades were particularly important across the Roman empire. But where did these images originate and what shaped them? Empir...

12/14/2023

American roadside attractions of the mid-20th century.

  Jim Dow (b. 1942) studied with Harry Callahan, Walker Evans and Minor White, all masters of black and white photography. With that pedigree you already get a hint of his style and subject matter. His views are of a raw and beguiling America. We see his photographs of signs – American vernacular...

12/12/2023

The forced migration of Africans to the Americas and to other areas of the world is called the Black Diaspora. Through hundreds of years, their traditions have joined with others in their new homelands. Nowhere is this seen better than in music. The cross fertilization between West Africa and the Americas is still important today. Here are African drums being played by the descendants of enslaved people on the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Dr. Josué Estrada will teach History of the Black Diaspora (History 332) from 10 -10:50 daily during Winter Quarter 2024.

Throughout the era of slavery, drums have been an integral part for the survival of the African slaves. Drum rhythms were used as a code, communicating messa...