Title: Week 15 Overview and Inquiry
Course: The American West: Power, Place, and Memory > Section: Week 15 · November 30–December 4, 2026: The Contemporary West and the Politics of Memory

WEEK 15 · INQUIRY MODULE

Week 15: The Contemporary West and the Politics of Memory

How do sovereignty, migration, water, climate, and public memory continue to remake the West?

Dates: November 30–December 4, 2026

Focus

- Tribal sovereignty and land return
- Immigration and border enforcement
- Water, fire, climate, and extraction
- Monuments, museums, tourism, and the western myth

Before class

1. Read: Instructor-selected current public sources; verify immediately before teaching.
2. Open and inspect the linked primary-source collection(s). Record one source, one context question, and one limitation.
3. Scholarship lens: One recent Western Historical Quarterly article selected to match student capstone themes.

Primary-source portals

- Western Historical Quarterly, current research
- Northwest Missouri State University Archives

Tuesday/Thursday meeting plan

Date | Status | Plan
Tuesday, December 1 | Class | Contemporary sovereignty, migration, water, climate, extraction, and capstone showcase/defenses.
Thursday, December 3 | Class | Politics of memory; capstone showcase/defenses; redraw the Week 1 map and synthesize the course.

Last regular meeting is Thursday, December 3. Final materials due Friday, December 4; finals run December 7–10.

After class

Deliverable: Capstone showcases/defenses in class; final materials and Seminar Practice Portfolio due Friday, December 4.

- I can answer the weekly inquiry with a contestable claim.
- I can name at least two pieces of evidence and explain their limits.
- I can identify an interpretation that my evidence supports, complicates, or challenges.