Ellen Aiken, Ph.D.

When I was nine years old, my family moved from
Minnesota to Grand Junction , Colorado . I have been
fascinated with the West ever since. During my
undergraduate years at CU, I hiked, camped, and climbed
all over Colorado . I spent one summer in a cabin near the site
of the old mining town of Caribou , cooking on a wood-burning stove and reading by the light of a
kerosene lamp. Once married with children, my husband and I
switched to car-camping and traded high peaks for
canyon country.
When my children reached school age, I entered graduate school at CU to study “the new western history” with Patricia Limerick. I completed my doctorate in 2002. My research interests revolve around the distinctive, transformative relationships that different cultures in the West have developed with the land and with each other.