Patty Limerick

Patty Limerick is a Professor of History, the Director of the Applied History Initiative, and the Campus Partner for Academic Affairs for the Veteran and Military Affairs office at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the author of Desert Passages (1985), The Legacy of Conquest  (1987), Something in the Soil (2000), and A Ditch in Time (2012

Limerick has received a number of awards and honors recognizing the impact of her scholarship and her commitment to teaching, including the MacArthur Fellowship (1995 to 2000) and the Hazel Barnes Prize, the University of Colorado’s highest award for teaching and research (2001). She was elected to the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. Limerick has served as President of the Organization of American Historians,  American Studies Association, the Western History Association, and the Society of American Historians, and as the Vice President of the Teaching Division of the American Historical Association.

Limerick has given innumerable public speeches to an impossibly wide range of audiences, and made many contributions on the op-ed pages of local and national newspapers. She has advised many documentary and film projects, as well as museum exhibits, and has completed three tours as a Pulitzer Nonfiction jurist.   

Patty Limerick can be reached at patricia.limerick@colorado.edu