Join Dr. Debra Harry, Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies for the Department of Gender, Race and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno, as she explores the inherent relationships between Indigenous Peoples and their lands, and how these relationships have transcended colonial efforts to erase these connections and the peoples themselves.

Dr. Debra Harry is Numu/Kooyooe Tukadu from Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Dr. Harry serves as an Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies for the Department of Gender, Race, and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Debra Harry’s research analyzes the linkages between biotechnology, intellectual property and globalization in relation to Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Dr. Harry has authored numerous articles related to the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ biodiversity and traditional knowledge including “Biocolonialism and Indigenous Knowledge in United Nations Discourse,” (2011) 20 Griffith Law Review, “Indigenous Peoples and Gene Disputes” 84 Chicago-Kent Law Review (2009). She also contributed a chapter titled, “Acts of Self-Determination and Self-Defense: Indigenous Peoples Responses to Biocolonialism,” as a contribution to a book entitled “Rights and Liberties in the Biotech Age,” (edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Peter Shorett) 2005. In 1994, Dr. Harry received a three-year national Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship and studied the field of human genetic research and its implications for Indigenous peoples. Dr. Harry earned her Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Auckland under the supervision of renowned Maori scholar, Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith.

Josh Bonde, a born and raised Nevadan and proud member of the Te-Moak Band of Western Shoshone, explores his path to being an Indigenous scientist and discusses the dinosaurs that once resided in Nevada. Bonde received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno, his M.S. in Earth Sciences from Montana State University-Bozeman, and his Ph.D. From the University of Nevada, Reno. He is an advocate for science education across the State of Nevada and is currently the Director at the Nevada State Museum.  

Tom Young, Founder and Brewmaster, recounts the origin story of the Icky IPA, its iconic logo and the history of the Great Basin Brewing Company. 

Join Rebecca Hall, Paleontologist and Executive Director of the Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada, as she explores Triassic trace fossils in Nevada.

Triassic trace fossils are well documented and researched from the Moenkopi Formation/Group, 240Ma, spanning across the Colorado Plateau of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico. These fossils, however, have never been formally documented or researched in Nevada until vertebrate trackways (footprints) from several different species were recently discovered. These specimens show exceptional preservation, including the presence of skin impressions. The discovery of tracks was first noted by Chester Longwell in 1928 when they were reported in a geological survey, but the tracks were never fully documented. After the discovery of vertebrate trace fossils in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area by Becky Hall, a proper scientific study is currently being conducted to contribute a better understanding of Triassic trace fossils in relation to regional and local reconstruction of paleoenvironments. These tracks represent the oldest Mesozoic vertebrate traces from Nevada, and some of the western-most terrestrial Triassic traces in North America expanding the record of Moenkopi ecosystems further afield. 

Join Garrett Barmore for a trip through time exploring Nevada’s geologic history as it relates to ichthyosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Learn about the W.M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum, its collections and its history. 

Garrett Barmore is the Curator at the W. M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum at the University of Nevada, Reno. Barmore is an alumnus of UNR and received his Master’s in Museology from the University of Washington. Garrett has worked as the curator of the Keck Museum for over 10 years and has given hundreds of presentations and tours about Nevada’s ancient past. The Museum’s paleontology collection represents millions of years of life in Nevada.

The apparent emptiness of the Nevada desert is very special to artist Elaine Parks and holds a psychic space, where the quiet and openness of the landscape allow her imagination to roam.

Parks’ inspiration comes from tufa and other kinds of rock formations and textures. Intended to elude identification yet remind the viewer of something they’ve seen in the outdoors, Parks’ work encourages the landscape to come alive in the viewers’ imagination.  Join Elaine Parks as she discusses the artwork she produced for Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada.

Join us to explore Seven Magic Mountains in virtual reality with Luka Starmer. The University Nevada Reno Libraries and the Nevada Museum of Art have teamed up to create an immersive virtual reality experience of Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains. This project allows viewers to virtually explore the vibrant sculptures in their actual form and scale, while experiencing the landscape and the people who visit it, all without ever leaving Northern Nevada. Beyond bringing the piece into the virtual reality, this project serves as a valuable archival tool, digitally preserving this captivating work of art in perpetuity, ensuring wider access, and fostering a deeper understanding of the iconic piece. The VR experience will be available in the E.L. Cord Museum School during regular hours. 

In 1901, Maynard Dixon and his artist-friend Edward Borein rode horseback from Oakland, California, into Carson City, Nevada, on the first leg of an epic thousand-mile-ride through the northern Great Basin. Along the way, both men sketched and studied cowboy life and the ranches they visited. Join Griff Durham as he traces their journey through northwestern Nevada, northeastern California, and Southern Oregon, with a special focus on their illustrations. Griff Durham is an historian who has been interested in cowboy horse gear and Great Basin ranching traditions for over 50 years and has guest curated and consulted on exhibitions at the Western Folklife Center in Elko, NV.

Sophia Borgias, Ph.D. and Kate Berry, Ph.D. discuss the politics of water as they relate to Charlotte Skinner’s time in Lone Pine, California during the Los Angeles Water Wars.

Sophia Borgias, Ph.D.,  Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Programs at Boise State University, is a human-environment geographer whose research and teaching focuses on water and environmental governance in the arid Americas. Her most recent research has focused on conflicts over rural-urban water transfers in the Great Basin region, as well as the “unlikely alliances” of environmentalists, ranchers, and Tribes that have formed to protect rural landscapes and livelihoods from their impacts. She is also engaged in ongoing collaborative research about Indigenous land and water rights in Payahuunadü, the Nüümü/Newe territory encompassing the Owens and Mono basins in eastern California. Her prior research focused on social mobilization in response to large dam and hydropower development in central and southern Chile. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography at the University of Arizona and holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Oregon.

Kate A. Berry, Ph.D. is a Professor in Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests focus on water governance, geographies of social identity, and resource extraction. She has experience in water and environmental conflict analysis and studies the cultural politics of water, working extensively on Indigenous water issues.

Collage, as a mode of visual culture, has long been associated with the prospect of rewriting history. Relatedly, it is a site for the material realization of visual trickery, fantasy, time travel, and much more. This talk, given by Brett M. Van Hoesen, Ph.D., examines the history and culture of collage in conjunction with the exhibition of Nick Larsen’s “Old Haunts, Lower Reaches.”