The American West Center at the University of Utah is pleased to offer two graduate student fellowships for research on the American West during the 2024-2025 academic year. The fellowships honor the late Professor Floyd A. O'Neil (1927 - 2018), Director Emeritus of the Center and Professor Emeritus of History.

O'Neil fellowships provide up to $2,000 to pursue research on an aspect of the American West, including the region’s history, politics, environment, society, culture, literature, geography, or peoples. Students from all disciplines are encouraged to submit applications. All applicants must be currently enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Utah and remain so throughout the period of the fellowship.

Students are required to complete a research paper within the academic year. This paper may also be used as a seminar paper, thesis chapter, journal article, etc. A copy of the paper must be given to the American West Center, and the student is required to acknowledge the American West Center’s support in that paper, and all subsequent research and publications that might result. The recipient will also give a presentation on their research in Spring 2025. Upon request the recipient may be provided office space at the Center and may receive individual guidance from the Center's faculty and staff.

How to Apply

Deadline: May 31, 2025 | Awardees will be notified via email after July, 1, 2025

To apply, submit the following:

• A completed application form
• A research proposal, including a budget outlining how the research funds will be spent (up to four pages)
• One letter of recommendation from an academic source
• Current transcript
• CV

Recipients will be selected on the following criteria:

• The applicant demonstrates scholarly potential
• The scholarly significance of the project
• The applicant demonstrates knowledge of source materials related to the proposal
• The applicant clearly states her/his research question
• The American West is a central focus of the research project

Application materials should be submitted to Michelle Judd at michelle.judd@utah.edu or mailing address: Michelle Judd, University of Utah, American West Center, 1995 de Trobriand St., FD618C, Salt Lake City, UT  84113 by May 31st, 2025. If you have any questions, you can email Michelle or call her at 801-581-7611.

2024-25 Fellows

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John Flynn is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Utah. His dissertation focuses on conflict over land use in the Great Basin during the Cold War. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the Great Basin became a contentious area as local resistance arose against the federal government's use of public lands for "wastelanding" projects. John’s research explores the environmental histories of wastelanding, anti-federal resistance, and sovereignty through case studies of land use conflicts in the American West during this period. With the generous support of the Floyd O’Neill Fellowship, John will fund a research trip to the National Archives in Washington, DC, where he will conduct archival research for his dissertation.

 

 

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Sarah Dyer is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Utah. Her dissertation focuses on the impact contemporary water rights in the Colorado River Basin have on Native nations within the region. Her research focuses on the ways in which the social and ecological conditions associated with how water rights and water infrastructure are currently structured in the basin affect the social, cultural, health, and environmental conditions for these nations, in addition to examining how these nations and peoples are responding to the current structure of water rights and attendant issues and concerns. She is especially interested in examining whether nations with unresolved water rights face different social and environmental outcomes than those with resolved water rights. Her dissertation utilizes both historical analysis and formal interviews to explore these questions.

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2022-23 Fellows

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