Patrons

Former Texas Governor WILLIAM P. CLEMENTS has long been fascinated with the American Southwest and the borderlands. In 1995 he embraced the idea of starting a research center at SMU that would advance scholarship in this region. His support materialized in two ways: the creation of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies and the creation of a Ph.D. program in the History Department that would prepare future scholars to deepen our understanding of the region. In 1996 the Clements Center opened its doors, and in 1998 the History Department welcomed the first Ph.D. students.

Governor Clements was the founder of SEDCO, one of the world’s largest drilling contractors. He was U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense (1973–76) and served twice as governor of Texas (1979–83 and 1987–91), the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. His ties to SMU extend over many years. Among his generous gifts, he made it possible for SMU to acquire and sustain a summer campus at Fort Burgwin, near Taos, New Mexico. From this significant historical and archaeological location to the development of young scholars in the History Department, to the scholarly research, publishing, and programs of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies, the governor’s dream continues to come true.

The Center's Benefactors

Governor William P. Clements
Louis Beecherl
The Philip R. Jonsson Foundation
The Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation
Tex Moncrief
The Summerfield Roberts Foundation
The Summerlee Foundation
Anonymous Donors

Advisory Panel

George Bayoud -Chair
Rafael Anchia Jon Bauman Roy Coffee
John Crain William Foster Charles D. Hutchison
Philip Jonsson Sylvia Komatsu Frances Levine
Jackie McElhaney Judy Jolley Mohraz Francoise Reynaud
Joe H. Staley Jim Watson Donna Wellington
Richard West Laura Wilson

SMU Executive Board

Mike Adler, Anthropology, Director SMU-in-Taos Suzanne Bost, English
John R. Chávez, History Benjamin Johnson, History
Kathryn Lang, SMU Press Russell Martin, DeGolyer Library
Alexis McCrossen, History John Ubelaker, Biology,
Philip Van Keuren, Fine Arts, Director Pollock Gallery
Ron Wetherington, Anthropology R. Hal Williams, History

Ex Oficio:

Caroline Brettell, Dean, Dedman College Kathleen Wellman, History

The Center's Staff

DAVID J. WEBER, Director, and Robert and Nancy Dedman Professor of History at Southern Methodist University, is author of a number of prize-winning books, including: The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest (1971), Foreigners in Their Native Land: Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans (1973), The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846 (1982), Richard H. Kern: Expeditionary Artist in the Far Southwest (1985), and The Spanish Frontier in North America (1992). His new book is Bárbaros. Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment (2005).
Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and named one of the "notable books" of 1992 by the New York Times, The Spanish Frontier won several awards, among them the "Spain and America" prize from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Weber has been a Fulbright-Hays Lecturer in Costa Rica and a visiting professor at Harvard University. He has held fellowships from the Huntington Library, the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. He is a past president of the Western History Association and the only American historian elected to membership in both the Mexican Academy of History and the Society of American Historians. In May 2003, he was knighted by the order of the King of Spain, receiving the Encomienda de la Orden de Isabel La Catolica. In February 2005, Weber was named to membership in the Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca (the Order of the Aztec Eagle), the highest award the Mexican government bestows on foreign nationals.

SHERRY L. SMITH, Associate Director of the Clements Center and Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. Her work rests at the intersection of western, Native Americans, and U.S. cultural history. Smith's book, Reimagining Indians: Native Americans through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940, won the Organization of American Historians James A. Rawley Prize for the best book on race relations in 2001. She coordinated the 2001 Clements Center Symposium on "The Future of the Southern Plains" and edited the books of essays that resulted. Smith is now organizing the 2007 symposium, "Exploitation and Opportunity: Energy and Indians in the American Southwest," with former Clements Center Fellow Brian Frehner and James Brooks of the School of American Research. Her other publications include: Sagebrush Soldier: Private William Earl Smith's View of the Sioux War of 1876 and The View from Officers' Row: Army Perceptions of Western Indians. Sherry received her M.A. degree at Purdue University and her Ph.D. at the University of Washington. She arrived at SMU in the fall of 1999, after teaching for twelve years at the University of Texas, El Paso. She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers in 1996-97 and has also held a Fulbright Foundation Senior Lectureship (New Zealand) and an Andrew Mellon Fellowship at the Huntington Library. Her teaching interests include the American West and American Indians. Smith explores issues regarding constructions of race and ethnicity, and the implications for American thought and identity as well as for Indian policy. Smith was co-chair of the program committee for the 2001 Western History Association conference.

ANDREA BOARDMAN, Executive Director, arrived at the Clements Center in 2001, after earning an M.A. in American History at SMU in 1999. Her B.A. was in Spanish Literature from Wheaton College (Mass.). Early in her career she lived and worked in Mexico, arriving on an internship for a Masters program in non-profit administration run by the Experiment in International Living. She stayed to work as a translator for the International Olympic Committee in Mexico City and continued as a freelancer. Returning to the U.S. in 1974, she entered the fields of corporate communications and public broadcasting, winning numerous awards as a writer and producer. In 1995 she joined the writer/producer team that created the Emmy Award-winning PBS production The U.S.-Mexican War, 1846 -1848, and also designed and co-wrote the accompanying classroom curriculum package. From 1999-2001 she was the researcher for Shaping America: U.S. History to 1877, a 26-part national distance-learning telecourse for the Dallas County Community College District. Also, she researched, wrote the catalogue, and curated the SMU DeGolyer Library’s 2001 exhibition, Destination México-"A Foreign Land a Step Away": U.S. Tourism to Mexico, 1880s to 1950s Later, working with the Texas Council for the Humanities, she transformed this project into a national traveling educational exhibition. In 2005 she contributed an essay, “The U.S.–Mexican War and the Beginnings of American Tourism to Mexico,” for a forthcoming book, edited by Dina Berger and Andrew Wood: Holiday in Mexico: Essays on Tourism and Tourist Encounters.

RUTH ANN ELMORE has been with the Clements Center since 2002. She earned her B.F.A. in studio art and B.A. in art history at SMU. Prior to joining the Clements Center, she worked as the registrar for a major contemporary art gallery in Dallas, and then with various community organizations handling their publicity and media relations. The Clements Center's "storefront" is this web site, which Ruth Ann is continuously updating with news about the Center's fellows, activities and opportunities. In addition, she co-edits the newsletter and brochure, and oversees the production of specialized books and publications. As a native Dallasite and an SMU alumna, she is a font of knowledge about local people and resources.

Directions and maps to sites frequently used for Clements Center events at SMU.

Visitor Parking at SMU.

E-mail us at swcenter@mail.smu.edu

Last updated August 6, 2007.

Bill Clements
bill clements.JPG (93180 bytes)
Texian to his Toenails
by Carolyn Barta

Selected Books Written by Advisors and Staff of the Clements Center

Picuris Pueblo Through Time: Eight Centuries of Change at Northern Rio Grande Pueblo. Edited by Michael Adler and Herbert Dick.

Mulattas and Mestizas
Representing Mixed Identities in the Americas, 1850-2000
by Suzanne Bost

Teaching Mexican American History
by John Chavez

Revolution in Texas
by Benjamin H. Johnson

Holy Day, Holiday:
The American Sunday
by Alexis McCrossen

Reimagining Indians: Native Americans Through Anglo Eyes,
by Sherry Smith

Ad Idahi Nili
by Philip Van Keuren

The Spanish Frontier in North America
by David J. Weber

America Past and Present, Vol. II, by Hal Williams, et al

Destination Mexico: "A Foreign Land a Step Away": U.S. Tourism Tourism to Mexico, 1880s-1950s , by Andrea Boardman