The past week Dr. Kelley and I have taken delight in hosting two distinguished scholars of the Great Plains–Molly P. Rozum, University of South Dakota, and David D. Vail, University of Nebraska at Kearney–while they conducted research in the collections of the Institute for Regional Studies in NDSU Archives. Great scholars, great guests. They came here courtesy of the Gunlogson Fund of the Institute, which awards grants for research in regional studies.
Rozum & Vail, Gunlogson research scholars, guests of the Institute
Molly, in her quest to explain the evolution of regional studies in the post-WW II era, has gone deep into the records of the founding of NDSU’s Institute for Regional Studies, the oldest regional studies center on the Great Plains of North America. She can tell us a lot about the Institute that we don’t know ourselves. David has uncovered rich material on risk and preparedness in Cold War-era agriculture on the Great Plains, from private diaries, scientists’ papers, and extension records.
History NDSU is fortunate to have the resources of the Institute–its manuscript and photo collections–available here, and fortunate, too, in that those resources attract scholars such as Molly and David. Both will be returning in the fall to make presentations of their research, so stay tuned.
Thanks to Candy Skauge for welcoming Molly and David to the reading room, and especially to John Hallberg for guiding them through our collections. Thanks also to the graduate students, faculty, and staff who turned out to interact with our guests.
