A message from Rick Edwards, Director for the Center for Great Plains Studies

 

The Center is known for scholarly accomplishments, striking art exhibitions, and informative talks. But more than that, it is a place to learn from the past, confront the issues shaping our region today, and look to what the future holds for the Great Plains. We strive to improve our programs and enhance their impact as positive contributions to the Great Plains.

The mission of the Center is to foster study of the people and the environment of Great Plains. This should be a place of ideas and regional engagement. As we work to conserve our eco-system and help human communities thrive, we hope you'll take a look at a few things we offer.

  • Scholarly works: Great Plains Quarterly and Great Plains Research are our two journals available through the University of Nebraska Press. Within these we hope to bring relevant interdisciplinary work -- articles on science, ecology, social science and the humanities are all found within their pages. Beyond the journals, we've produced larger works, like the Atlas of the Great Plains and the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Our courses of study in the Great Plains attract bright students with deep interests in this section of the continent.

  • Community engagement: The Center is the host for the Paul A. Olson seminars, a series of lectures on various topics throughout the school year. And this is just one of the ways we connect with our community. Recently, the Center produced a print and digital map of the top 50 ecotourism sites in the Great Plains, furthering our conservation mission. This April, we hosted our 39th Annual Symposium, held this year at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, on the topic of rural education, bringing to light important issues for the future of rural schools and rural communities.

  • Art: The Great Plains Art Museum inhabits the first floor and lower level of the Center. Yes, through those non-descript glass doors of the Hewit Place building is a world-class art museum (we're working on giving our building a facelift). Our mission is to connect with artists who work to capture the Great Plains through their chosen medium. This past year the museum has hosted exhibits of photography, sculptures and even youth work from area schools. It continues to be an important part of our work in sharing the culture of the Great Plains with the public.

The Center and all of its programs are located in Hewit Place at the corner of 12th and Q streets. Standing before the museum's doors is a life-sized five-figure sculpture of Lewis and Clark titled "On the Trail of Discovery." Feel free to give Lewis and Clark's dog a good pat on the head as you venture into the museum. We thank all visitors and friends of the center for helping us in our mission.

Director Rick Edwards
Director Rick Edwards

About Rick Edwards

Director, Center for Great Plains Studies


Contact information

Hewit Place, 306
1155 Q St.
Lincoln, NE 68588
Phone: +1-402-472-3082
Fax: +1-402-472-9700
redwards1@unl.edu

Became the Center's director in November 2011.

Education

Ph.D. Harvard University
M.A. Harvard University
B.A. Grinnell College

Research interests

Conservation and ecotourism in the Great Plains; the economics, history, demography, and natural resources of the Great Plains; issues in higher education

Projects

Ecotourism and the conservation of the Great Plains grasslands

The history of homesteading

Other Great Plains topics

Animations

The Center for Great Plains Studies, in collaboration with NET-TV, has produced for the World Wildlife Fund four short animated videos displaying different aspects of settlement and habitat destruction in the Great Plains. The videos concern conversion of the prairie into plowed croplands, habitat fragmentation, energy development including the spread of windfarms, decline of and partial restoration of the bison, and pronghorn migration routes.

Grassland conversion

























Energy development

























Bison range

























Habitat fragmentation

























The Center for Great Plains Studies, in collaboration with NET-TV, has produced for the World Wildlife Fund four short animated videos displaying different aspects of settlement and habitat destruction in the Great Plains. The videos were created by Scott Beachler (NET) with geographical expertise provided by Prof. Clark Archer (UNL, Geography and Center for Great Plains Studies), based in part on the maps Prof. Clark and colleagues constructed for Atlas of the Great Plains (2011, University of Nebraska Press). The videos show conversion of the prairie into plowed croplands, habitat fragmentation, energy development including the spread of windfarms, decline of and partial restoration of the bison, and pronghorn migration routes.

Population change in the Great Plains

Click here to download a Flash file of the animation

This animation was created by Dr. Kenneth French, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, while he was a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Posted with permission.

Books published

NEBRASKA 1875: Its Advantages, Resources, and Drawbacks (University of Nebraska Press 2006)

UNDERSTANDING CAPITALISM: Competition, Command, and Change (with Samuel Bowles and Frank Roosevelt, Oxford University Press 1981, 1991, 2005)

RIGHTS AT WORK: Employment Relations in the Post-Union Era (The Brookings Institution 1993); THE FORGOTTEN LINK: Labor's Stake in International Economic Integration (with Paolo Garonna, Rowman and Littlefield 1991)

THE PROBLEM OF YOUTH: The Regulation of Youth Employment and Training in Advanced Economies (with Paul Ryan and Paolo Garonna, Macmillan 1991)

UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM: Essays in Honor of John Kenneth Galbraith (with Samuel Bowles and William G. Shepherd, Houghton Mifflin 1989)

IL SINDICATO OLTRE LA CRISI (with Paolo Garonna and Elena Pisani, Franco Angeli Libri 1988)

UNIONS IN CRISIS AND BEYOND: Perspectives from Six Countries (with Paolo Garonna and Franz Tödtling, Auburn House 1986)

SEGMENTED WORK, DIVIDED WORKERS: The Transformation of Labor in the United States (with David Gordon and Michael Reich, Cambridge University Press 1982)

CONTESTED TERRAIN: The Transformation of the Workplace in the 20th Century (Basic Books 1979)

LABOR MARKET SEGMENTATION (with David Gordon and Michael Reich, Lexington Books 1975)

THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM (with Michael Reich and Thomas Weisskopf, Prentice-Hall 1970, 1978, 1986).

Published in

Change, American Economic Review, Journal of Economic History, Academe, Organization, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Journal of Human Resources

Awards

Cole Prize; German Marshall Fund Fellow; Research Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars; ranked among the top 100 Economists, Journal of Economic Education (1989)

Selected articles