We Are a Mountain People with Leisl Carr Childers In-Person
In the 1920's, the Terzian family relocated from Worster, Massachusetts, to Fresno, California, to take advantage of the economic opportunity agriculture in the area offered. Survivors of the Armenian Genocide and recent immigrants to the United States, the family sought solace in their evangelical Christian faith and in Yosemite National Park. Following in the footsteps of John Muir, the Terzians crafted an American identity anchored in their faith and national park visitation. Through three subsequent generations this combination of faith and sublime nature, as with many American families, has become the family's signature identity.
Join us for this talk by Leisl Carr Childers, a Hemingway House Writer-in-Residence with The Community Library.
Registration requested to join us in person. To watch live online (no registration needed) visit: https://vimeo.com/event/5969766. The recording will be available to watch on The Community Library's Event Archive.
- Date:
- Wednesday, June 17, 2026
- Time:
- 5:30pm - 6:30pm
- Time Zone:
- Mountain Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall
- Campus:
- The Community Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Lectures & Conversations
Dr. Leisl Carr Childers is an Associate Professor at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on the American West, specifically the environmental history and management of the region’s public lands. Her first book, The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin (University of Oklahoma Press, 2015), won the Western Writers of America 2016 Spur Award for Contemporary Nonfiction. Her research has been featured on KNPR's State of Nevada, Bundyville (Season 1), PBS Frontline (American Patriot), and in the High Country News. Her digital projects have included the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project, My National Parks and the Art of Ranching, a collaboration with CSU Extension that engages youth in intergenerational storytelling to do community history. In addition, she is the co-editor with Renee Laegreid on the Sandoz Studies book series and with Michael Childers on the Environment and Region in the American West book series, both at the University of Nebraska Press. She is part of the Western Historical Quarterlyeditorial team and a member of the university's Climate Adaptation Partnership and the Public and Environmental History Center. She is an active member of the Western History Association, the American Society for Environmental History, and the National Council on Public History.