The work of George Catlin, best known for his paintings of American Indians in the mid-1800s, will be examined in a Feb. 7 lecture presented by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
聯Living Beyond Lament: Rethinking George Catlin聮s Vanishing America聰 will be presented by Professor John Hausdoerffer, an environmental historian and ethicist at Western State College in Gunnison.
Hausdoerffer will speak at 7 p.m. in the Eaton Humanities Building, room 150. The event is free and open to the public.
Hausdoerffer will take a fresh look at Catlin, a painter and author who specialized in portraits of American Indians in the Old West and who had a profound impact on images of the American West. He will review Catlin聮s paintings not in the manner of an art historian, but as an environmental historian and ethicist examining issues such as social justice and environmental ethics in Catlin聮s work.
聯Into the 21st century, many well-meaning Americans hold on to an image of Indian people as residents of a lost past, not fully present in modern times,聰 said history Professor Patty Limerick, faculty director of the Center of the American West. 聯If we ask ourselves, 聭Where on earth did that persistent stereotype come from?聮 one big answer is 聭George Catlin.聮 This fact gives Hausdoerffer聮s work great relevance.聰
Hausdoerffer is the author of the forthcoming 聯Catlin's Lament: Native Justice and the Ethics of Nature聰 scheduled to be published by the University of Kansas Press in 2009. He is the director of environmental studies at Western State College and has presented his research on the historical intersection of environmental and social ethics at universities in the Czech Republic, Taiwan, India and across the United States.
聯The center is committed to recognizing and honoring talented and insightful faculty in the state, whether or not they teach at CU, and John Hausdoerffer certainly fits in that category,聰 Limerick said.
The mission of the CU-Boulder Center of the American West is to explore the distinctive character and issues of the region and to help Westerners become well-informed, participating citizens. For more information visit the CU-Boulder Center of the American West Web site at or call (303) 492-4879.