Brenden W. Rensink

Historian of the North American West, Borderlands, Indigenous Peoples, and Environment

Public & Academic Speaking

Invited Talks:

  • 2024
    • “Connecting Memory Across Borders and Generations: The Power of Oral, Digital, and Public History to Preserve and Restore our Pasts.” 2024 Memorial Joseph Harper Cash Memorial Lecture, University of South Dakota, 2 April 2024.
  • 2023
    • “Adventuring in the Wildest West: Histories of the Remote and Rugged, Why We Seek Them Out, and What Their Future Holds.” Area Studies Group and School of Environmental Humanities, University of Oslo, Norway, August 2023.
    • “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands.” Department of Literature, Area Studies, and European Languages, University of Oslo, Norway, August 2023.
  • 2022
    • “Reconnecting the Public with their Pasts Through Digital History.” Keynote address, Mapping Tahlequah History Workshop, Northeastern State University, 4 April 2022.
    • “Refugees Past and Present: Training our Eyes to Find the Overlooked.” Sons of the Utah Pioneers, 3 March 2022, Centerville, UT.
  • 2021
    • “Adventures in the Archives: On the Importance and Fun of Working with Primary Sources.” Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University, October 21, 2021.
    • “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands.” Montana Historical Society, September 30, 2021.
    • “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands.” Ivan Doig Center at Montana State University, October 1, 2021.
  •  2020
    • “Reading Indigenous Histories Differently: Comparing Transnational Immigration and Refugee Contexts.” University of California, Los Angeles, American Indian Studies Center, May 11, 2020. POSTPONED due to COVID19.
    • “Recognition as “American” Indians: Yaqui, Cree, and Chippewa Fights for Belonging in Arizona and Montana.” Arizona State Historical Society, and University of Arizona Department of History and American Indian Studies Program, April 9, 2020. POSTPONED due to COVID19.
  •  2019
    • “Disrupting Western, Indigenous, and Borderlands Histories.” Eastern New Mexico State, November 5, 2019.
    • “Disrupting Western, Indigenous, and Borderlands Histories.” Center for the Study of the American West at West Texas A&M University, November 4, 2019.
    • “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands.” Dixie State University and Utah Humanities Book Festival, St. George, UT, September 24, 2019.
    • “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands.” Northern Arizona University, September 10, 2019.
    • “Transnational Indigenous Histories in the North American Borderlands.” John F. Kennedy Institute, Borders Research Unit of the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence, and Department of History, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, June 17, 2019.
    • “Complicating North American Borderlands with Transnational Indigenous Histories.” Savoirs dans l’Espace Anglofine: Représentations, Culture, Histoire (SEARCH) at Université de Strasbourg, France, June 14, 2019.
    • “Remembering Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities in Migration, Border, and Refugee Debates.” La Maison de L’International de Grenoble, France, June 13, 2019.
    • “Transnational Indigenous Histories in the North American Borderlands.” Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany, June 11, 2019.
    • “Using Counternarratives to Deconstruct Familiar Histories: A Comparative Indigenous and Western Borderlands Case Study.” History Colloquium Series. Weber State University, April 12, 2019.
    • “When Natives Were “Foreign”: Complicating North American West, Borderlands, and Indigenous Histories.” University of California – Santa Barbara, February 19, 2019.
  • 2018
    • “When Borders Cross Natives and Natives Cross Borders: A Comparative North American Example.” UniGR-Border Studies Center, Saarland University and the Université de la Grande Région – Universität der Großregion, Saarbrücken, Germany, May 25, 2018.
    • “Indigenous Migration and Missing Federal Policies in the North American Borderlands.” Centre for Migration Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, 23 May 2018.
    • “Natives as Immigrants and Refugees: A Comparative North American Borderlands Example.” Borders and Migration Lecture Series, Kennedy Center for International Studies, Brigham Young University, March 21, 2018.
  • 2011
    • “The ‘Other’ West: Minority Experience in the 19th Century West,” “Probing the Progressive Age,” and “American Expansion and Imperialism.” Consultant, Guest Speaker, Summer 2011 History Alive Seminar, Nebraska Wesleyan University and Omaha Public Schools. Omaha, NE.

Conference and Seminar Presentations:

  • 2024
      • “Historic Wilderness “Experiences” and Contemporary Recreation and Public Lands Management Debates.” Western History Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, October 2024.
      • “Teaching Utah History: Approaches and Resources.” National Council on Public History, Salt Lake City, UT, April 2024.
  • 2023
    • “Indigenous Peoples and the Early Church: What the Joseph Smith Papers Do an Do Not Reveal.” The Joseph Smith Papers Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, Sept. 2023
    • “The Storied Past, Fraught Present, and Uncertain Future of Wilderness Experience in the Mountains and Deserts of the American West.” European Society for Environmental History, Bern, August 2023.
  • 2022
    • “The Redd Center at 50.” Roundtable panelist, Mormon History Association, Logan, UT, June 2022.
  • 2021
    • “Podcasting in the West.” Roundtable panelist, Western History Association 61st Annual Conference, Portland, OR, October 2021.
    • “New Directions and Questions for American Indian and Mormon Histories.” Roundtable panelist, Mormon History Association, Rochester, NY, June 2021
  • 2020
    • Featured author for WHA Committee on Teaching and Public Education K-12 Workshop, Western History Association 60th Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM, October 2020.
    • “Multiculturalism, Museums, and Academic Centers in the Twenty-First Century West.” Roundtable panelists, Western History Association 60th Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM, October 2020.
    • “New Directions and Questions for American Indian and Mormon Histories.” Roundtable panelists, Mormon History Association, Rochester, NY, June 2020.
    • “The Nation-State, Its Histories and Archives, and Native Biographies that Transgress Them.” American Historical Association Annual Conference, New York City, NY, January 2020.
  • 2019
    • “Tips for the Academic Career, Part One: Service, Institutional Isolation, and the Importance of Networks.” Western History Association 59th Annual Conference, November 2019, Las Vegas, NV.
    • “Indigenous North Americans, International Borders, and Seeking Overlooked Transnational Populations.” Colloque Frontières dans les Amériques, Université Grenoble Alpes, June 2019, Grenoble, France.
  • 2018
    • “Intermountain Histories,” Digital Sixshooter Panel. Western History Association 58th Annual Conference, November 2018, San Antonio, TX.
    • “When Indigenous Peoples Cross Borders as Refugees.” Association for Borderlands Studies 2nd World Conference, July 2018, Vienna, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary.
    • “Progreso y Orden”: The Porfirian Rhetoric and Campaigns of Extermination, Deportation, and Enslavement of Yaquis in the late-19th and early-20th Century Mexico.” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference, May 2018, Los Angeles, CA.
    • “Progreso y Orden”: The Porfirian Rhetoric and Campaigns of Extermination, Deportation, and Enslavement of Yaquis in the late-19th and early-20th Century Mexico.” Words That Kill Conference, George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, American University of Paris, May 2018.
  • 2017
    • “Comparing Borders and Indigenous Peoples: What the U.S.-Canadian and U.S.-Mexican Borderlands Teach Us about One Another.” Western History Association 57th Annual Conference, November 2017, San Diego, CA.
    • “Intermountain Histories.” Utah State History Conference, October 2017, Salt Lake City, UT.
    • “Falling Through Transnational Cracks: Lost Indigenous Biographies in the U.S.-Canadian Borderlands.” Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference, June 2017, Vancouver, BC.
  • 2016
    • “The Paradox of Border, Boundaries, and Frontiers: How the Edges of Empire Can Encourage and Obstruct Mobility.” Ethnohistory Annual Conference, November 2016, Nashville, TN.
    • “The Role, Relevance, and Future of Regional Studies Centers in a Global Environment.” Western History Association 56th Annual Conference, October 2016, St. Paul, MN.
    • “To Conform to Fundamental Purpose: The National Parks and the American West, a Lightning Panel.” Western History Association 56th Annual Conference, October 2016, St. Paul, MN.
  • 2015
    • “Howard Egan’s Place in Western History.” Symposium on the Life and Time of Howard Egan, Salt Lake City, UT, June 2015.
  • 2014
    • “Publishing as Public History.” Roundtable with Steven Danver, David Rich Lewis, Jeff Nichols, Paul Reeve, and Holly George. Western Lands, Western Voices: The American West Center at Fifty Symposium, University of Utah, September 2014.
  • 2012
    • “The Indigenous Immigrant: Comparing Native Canadian and Mexican Immigration to the U.S. Borderlands.” Newberry Seminar in Borderlands and Latino Studies. Center for American History and Culture Programs, Newberry Library, December 2012.  Chicago, IL.
  • 2010
    • “Receiving “Canadian” versus “Mexican” Indian Migrants and Refugees in Montana and Arizona: Perceived Ethnicity and Native Labor in the U.S. Borderlands.”  Western History Association 50th Annual Conference, October 2010. Incline Village, NV.
  • 2009
    • “Transborder Indigenous Migration and Refugee Experiences.” Roundtable Panel title: “Both Borders: A Roundtable on Researching and Writing on the West’s Mexican and Canadian Borderlands,” chaired by Dr. Ben Johnson.  Western History Association 49th Annual Conference, October 2009. Denver, CO.
    • “‘I Never Was Tired of a Tribe as I am of This One’: Montanan Efforts to Deport Foreign Indians, 1880-1916.” Northern Great Plains History Conference, October 2009.  St. Cloud, MN.
    • “Creating Illegals out of Natives: U.S., Mexican and Canadian Borderlands and the Politics of Indigenous Migration.”  The James A. Rawley Conference in the Humanities, March 2009.  Lincoln, NE.
  • 2008
    • “Mexican Borderlands, Indigenous Ethnogenesis and Community Identity, 1500-Present.”  The James A. Rawley Conference in the Humanities, April 2008. Lincoln, NE.
    • “Yaqui and Rocky Boy Cree Refugees in Arizona and Montana: Borderland Peripheries and the Formation of Federal Borderlands Indian Policy.”  Missouri Valley History Conference, March 2008. Omaha, NE.
  • 2007
    • “Justifying Autonomy through Regional Distinction: Identity Construction and Rhetorical Fallacy in Separatist Transnistria and the Republic of Moldova.” The James A. Rawley Conference in the Humanities, April 2007. Lincoln, NE.

 

Conference Service & Organizing:

  • 2024
    • “The US–Canada Border and Its Borderlands: Emerging Trends in a Developing Field.” Roundtable Chair. American Historical Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, 6 January 2024.
  • 2023
    • “Writing the North American West into the 21st” Roundtable Chair and Organizer. Western History Association Conference, Los Angeles, CA, 27 October 2023.
    • “Mormonism and Colonialism.” Panel Chair. Juanita Brooks Utah History Conference, Utah Tech University, St. George, UT, 24 March 2023.
  •  2021
    • “New Directions and Questions for American Indian and Mormon Histories.” Roundtable Organizer and Chair. Mormon History Association, Park City, UT, June 2021.
    • “Settlement on the San Juan: Pioneers, Personalities, and Persistence.” Conference chair and moderator. Hole-in-the-Rock Foundation, 22 May 2021.
  •  2020
    • “New Directions and Questions for American Indian and Mormon Histories.” Roundtable Organizer and Chair. Mormon History Association, Rochester, NY, November 2020.
  • 2018
    • “Indigenous Peoples in Imposed Colonial and Post-Colonial Borderlands.” Panel Organizer and Chair. Association for Borderlands Studies 2nd World Conference, July 2018, Vienna, Austria, and Budapest, Hungary.
    • “The Rhetoric of Indigenous Extermination and Genocide in Colonial and Postcolonial North American.” Panel Organizer and Chair. Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference, May 2018, Los Angeles, CA.
    • “The Rhetoric of Indigenous Extermination and Genocide in Colonial and Postcolonial North American.” Words That Kill Conference, George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, American University of Paris, May 2018.
  • 2016
    • “Engaging with Empire: Mapping Cosmopolitan Lives and Visions.” Panel Chair. Ethnohistory Annual Conference, November 2016, Nashville, TN.
  • 2015
    • “Bridging the Divide: Race, Violence, and Memory in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.” Panel Chair and Commenter, Western History Association 55th Annual  Conference, October 2015, Portland, OR.
  • 2014
    • “Indigenous Genocide Studies in the West and the World.” Roundtable organizer and chair, Western History Association 54th Annual Conference, October 2014, Newport Beach, CA.
    • “Disrupting and Considering New Directions for Indigenous Mormon and Mormon-Indigenous Studies.” Roundtable/Panel organizer and chair. Mormon History Association Conference. June 2014. San Antonio, TX.
    • “New Directions in Indigenous Mormon and Mormon-Indigenous Studies.” Roundtable/Panel organizer and chair. Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Conference, May 2014. Austin, TX.
  • 2012
    • “Indigenous-Defined Borderlands, Boundaries and Landscapes: A Two-Session Panel and Roundtable.”  Panel and Roundtable organizer and chair, Western History Association 52nd Annual Conference, October 2012.  Denver, CO.
    • “The Shifting Composition of the Great Plains.” Panel Chair and commenter. The James A. Rawley Conference in the Humanities, March 2012.  Homestead National Monument, Beatrice, NE.
    • “Future Directions in Western History: a Roundtable Discussion with Sarah Carter, Elliott West and John Wunder.”  Roundtable Chair and Moderator. The James A. Rawley Conference in the Humanities, March 2012. Homestead National Monument, Beatrice, NE.
    • “America: 1770-1945.”  Panel Chair. Missouri Valley History Conference, March 2012. Omaha, NE.
  • 2010
    • “Transnational Natives in International Landscapes: Comparing Indigenous Migrations, Federal Policies and International Boundaries across the Borderlands of Canada, Mexico and the United States.” Panel Organizer, Western History Association 50th Annual Conference, October 2010. Incline Village, NV.
  • 2008
    • “A Community of Consumption: Food and Music in the Twentieth Century.” Panel Chair and Commenter. The James A. Rawley Conference in the Humanities, April 2008. Lincoln, NE.

Academic Seminar Participation:

  • 2022
    • Rocky Mountain American Religion Seminar, Seminar Discussant, 20 October 2022. Remote.
    • Academic Skills Repurposing, Workshop Participant, Mellon Foundation for an Applied History program at the Center of the American West – University of Colorado Boulder, 20 April 2022. Remote.
    • Mapping Tallequah History, Workshop Participant, Northeastern State University, 4 April 2022. Tallequah, OK.
  •  2019
    • The American West in the 21st Century. Seminar Host and Organizer. Brigham Young University, June 2019. Provo, UT.
  • 2016
    • American Indians and Mormons. Seminar Co-Host and Co-Organizer. Brigham Young University, June 2016. Provo, UT.
  • 2015
    • Mormons and the Environment. Seminar Moderator. Brigham Young University, November 2015. Provo, UT.
  • 2013
    • “Plains Metis as Tribe?: Geography, Economy, and Society in the 19th Century.” Workshop, University of Ottawa, March 2013. Ottawa, Ontario.
  • 2011
    • Triennial Charles Redd Seminar on Immigration in the Far West, Brigham Young University, August 2011. Provo, UT.

 

Invited Class Presentations, Workshops, and
Miscellaneous Public Events:

  • 2024
    • “LDS Views on the Environment Panel Discussion,” moderator. Kanab Amazing Earthfest, Kanab, Utah, 11 May 2024.
  • 2022
    • “Both Sides Now Book Launch and Panel Discussion,” Featured panelist. The University of Lethbridge Border Studies Group, 2 December 2022.
  •  2021
    • “Intermountain Histories Discussion,” Public History Seminar Class Visit, Prof. Michael Amundson, Northern Arizona University, March 2021.
    • “Public History Discussion,” Fielding History Class Visit, Prof. Jeff Nichols, Westminster College, 10 March 2021.
    • “Native but Foreign Discussion.” Immigration History Seminar Class Visit, Prof. Julie Greene, University of Maryland, 9 February 2021.
  •  2020
    • “Native but Foreign Discussion.” Borderlands History Seminar Class Visit, Prof. Chantel Rodríguez, University of Maryland, 14 October 2020
    • “Native but Foreign Discussion.” American Indian History Seminar Class Visit, Prof. Benjamin Madley, University of California, Los Angeles, 4 May 2020
    • “Public History Discussion.” HIST 431, Public History, Brigham Young University, February 2020.
    • “Native But Foreign Discussion.” Borderlands and Border Lives Seminar class discussion via video conference, Prof. Rosina Lozano, Princeton University, 18 February 2020.
  • 2019
    •  “Native But Foreign Discussion.” North American Borderlands Seminar Class Visit, Prof. James F. Brooks, University of California – Santa Barbara, 19 February 2019.
    • “Native But Foreign Discussion.” Capstone History Seminar Class Discussion via Skype, Prof. Robert Voss, Northwestern Missouri State University, February 2019.
    • “How to Organize and Edit an Anthology.” North American West Seminar Class Discussion via Skype, Prof. Max Mueller, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 6 February 2019.
  • 2018
    • “What is Public History.” HIST 392R. Prof. Sarah Loose, Brigham Young University, December 2018.
    • “Native but Foreign and Borderlands History Discussion.” Class Discussion in American West Graduate Seminar, University of Utah, Prof. W. Paul Reeve, November 2018.
    • “Native but Foreign Discussion.” Class Discussion via Skype. Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, Prof. Miriam Villanueva. October 2018.
  • 2016
    • “What is Public History.” Guest presentation, HIST 200, Prof. Leslie Hadfield, Brigham Young University.
  • 2010
    • “Conceptualizing, Organizing and Writing a Comparative History.” Guest Speaker, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,  U.S. West Research Seminar (History 942), September 1, 2010.
    • “Native Americans in Colonial America.” Guest Lecture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Colonial America (History 334/894), January 28, 2010.

Media Interviews:

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