Our Mission
The Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest is dedicated to advancing historical scholarship on the North American West with an emphasis on the Pacific Northwest and its connections to other places. Located in the Department of History at the University of Washington, we support research, teaching, and public programs that further our knowledge of the peoples and issues that have shaped the region’s past and set the stage for its future.
History & Timeline
CSPN was founded within the University of Washington’s Department of History in the fall of 1990. Over the years CSPN has sponsored lectures, colloquium, symposium, classes, books, and conferences devoted to the study of the Pacific Northwest. The Center also supports graduate students, visiting scholars, faculty, and community organizations. For more information see this short article by Linda Nash.
1990
CSPN established by the University of Washington’s Department of History
1991
Colloquium series: “Indians and Whites in the Pacific Northwest”
Summer Institute on State History for Secondary Teachers
1992
Colloquium series: “City and Community in the Pacific Northwest”
Conference: “The Atomic West, 1942-1992: Federal Power and Regional Development”
1993
Colloquium series: “Labor and Minorities in the Pacific Northwest”
Symposium: “Sacred Encounters: Indians, Non-Indians, and Religion in the American and Canadian Northwests”
1994
Conference: “Power and Place in the American West”
Sick Lecture: Quintard Taylor, “From ‘Freedom Now’ to ‘Black Power’: Blacks, Asians, and Whites in Seattle’s Civil Rights Movement”
1995
CSPN moves into its new home in Smith Hall
Symposium: “World War II: What it Took to End the War”
1996
Conference: “On Brotherly Terms: Canadian-American Relations West of the Rockies”
State History Curriculum Project initiated
1997
Lecture series: “The Frontier in American Culture”
Sick Lecture: Shelby Scates, “The Whole Load of Hay Falls on Maggie”
1998
Symposium: “All Powers Necessary and Convenient” on the Canwell Committee
1999
CSPN office renovations completed
Symposium: “Mount Rainier National Park Centennial”
2000
Conference: The Nikkei Experience in the Pacific Northwest”
Sick Lecture: Robert Kaufman, “A Bridge Too Far: Senator Jackson’s Quest for the Presidency”
2001
CSPN receives the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for its curriculum packets
Summer course and lecture series: “A Sense of Where We Are”
2002
Co-sponsored annual Pacific Northwest History Conference: “History on the Edge and at the Center”
2003
Author talk: Jim Phillips and Rosemary Gartner, “Murdering Holiness: The Trials of Franz Creffield and George Mitchell”
2004
Symposium: “Imagining the Trans-Pacific West”
2005
Conference: “Pacific Northwest Indian Treaties in National and International Historical Perspective”
Sick Lecture: Albert Furtwangler, “Bringing Indians to the Book”
2006
Sick Lecture: Katrine Barber, “Death of Celilo Falls”
2007
Summer course and lecture series: “A Sense of Where We Are”
2008
Co-sponsored Washington State History Day
Lecture series: “U.S. Empire in Comparative and Historical Perspective”
2009
Sick Lecture: Lorraine McConaghy, “The U.S. Navy in the Antebellum West”
Symposium: “Race and Empire at the Fair: A Centennial Symposium on the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition”
2010
Lecture series: “The Crossroads of Empire”
Sick Lecture: Andrew H. Fisher, “Shadow Tribe: The Making of Columbia River Indian Identity”
Sick Lecture: Patricia Susan Hart, “A Home for Every Child: The Washington Children’s Home Society in the Progressive Era”
2011
Conference: “Race, Radicalism, and Repression on the Pacific Coast and Beyond”
2012-Present
COMING SOON