Center for Big Bend Studies
Center for Big Bend Studies
Every fall the Center for Big Bend Studies hosts a two-day conference in the Morgan University Center on the campus of Sul Ross State University.
The conference brings together historians, archeologists, folklorists and other researchers studying the past and present of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico.
Conference attendees are also invited to renew old acquaintances and meet new friends at the complimentary Friday night social, followed by our annual banquet.
Center for Big Bend Studies members will receive a registration form in the mail several weeks before the conference that offers a discount for CBBS members and a discounted price for early registration.
Non-members may request a registration form by calling (432) 837-8179, faxing (432) 837-8381, e-mailing cbbs@sulross.edu or by downloading a form (PDF).
Presentations are allotted 30 minutes, and we recommend that the presentation itself last no more than 20 minutes, to leave time for questions. If you would like to present, please complete the Call for Papers form and send materials to the Center for Big Bend Studies. For detailed instructions for presenters, download the PDF.
Presentations should focus on prehistoric, historic and modern cultures of the Borderlands Region of the United States and Mexico, with emphasis on the area encompassed by Trans-Pecos Texas and North-Central Mexico. Please prepare a Powerpoint slideshow to accompany your talk.
All presenters are encouraged to write up their presentation as a formal paper after the conference and submit it for consideration in the next fall's Journal of Big Bend Studies. Selected papers will be edited and published. It is not required that journal papers be presented at the conference, but all conference presenters may then write a paper on their or another topic and submit it to the journal. All papers are required to follow a specific format which can be referenced here (PDF).
Dr. Michael B. Collins is a Research Associate Professor at Texas State University in San Marcos. He has specialized in the study of lithic technology and worked with prehistoric collections from North, Central, and South America, as well as the Near East and southwestern Europe. He collaborated on the lithics research for the preClovis site of Monte Verde, Chile. Dr. Collins is currently active in research on the earliest part of the American archaeological record and published Clovis Blade Technology (UT Press) and Clovis Stone Tool Technology (in press). His presentation at the 2011 Conference banquet is titled “Recent Developments at the Gault Site and the Search for the First Americans”.
“The Judge’s Three Faces: Judge Holden in Samuel Chamberlain’s Memoir ‘My Confessions,” Cormac McCarthy’s Short Story ‘The Scalp Hunters,’ and McCarthy’s novel ‘Blood Meridian’”—Clay Anderson
“The Lost Colony: The First Thirty Years of Art at Sul Ross State University”—Mary Bones
“Beyond the Big Bend”—Richard H. Hancock
“Splashdown in the Rio Grande: The 1911 Flight of Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois and Its Place in Military Aviation History”—John M. Hutchins
“X-Rays, Lasers, and Other Fun Things: The Science Behind Rock Art Conservation at Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site, El Paso County, Texas”—Tim Roberts
“Arl Walter Fulcher: A Cowboy in France; A Soldier in Terlingua, Texas”—Kitty J. Sibayan
“Texon: A Model West Texas Oil Town”—Jane Spraggins Wilson and James A. Wilson
“An Army Snapshot: The Fort Bliss News as a Reflection of Army Life during World War II”—Don Walden
“Tied Hard and Fast - Apache Adams, Big Bend Cowboy”—Don Cadden
“Shares in Texas!” The Santa Fe Land Trust and Title Company Hoax"—Cynthia Brandimarte
“Taming the Healing Waters: A History of the Chinati Hot Springs”—David Keller
"Revealing the Obscure: Innovative Imaging of Petroglyphs and Other Archaeological Phenomena”—Mark D. Willis
“All that Glitters Is Not Gold”—Paul Wright
“A. G. Beard: West Texas Lawman”—Monty Waters
“Jodie P. Harris: Postcards from the Border”—Matt Walter
“Not Far by West Texas Standards”—Claudia Rivers
“Sherbino Mesa Rock Art Shelter”—Evans Turpin
“The Courtship and Marriage of Eva Camuñez”—Gloria Duarte
“Tracing the Trail of the Comanche and Quanah Parker in West Texas: Balancing History, Artifacts, Tourism and Legacy”—Holle Humphries
“West Point on the Rio Grande: United States Military Academy Graduates in Texas during the Border Troubles, 1911-1921”—Troy M. Ainsworth
“The Center for Big Bend Studies Feature Recovery Program: An On-going Study of Feature Variability in the Big Bend”—Richard Walter
“Images of America: Big Bend National Park and Vicinity”—Thomas C. Alex
“The Black Hills Survey Revisited”—Roger Boren
“Coming Up from the Canyons: An Overview of CBBS Archaeological Investigations on the Pinto Canyon Ranch, Past and Present”—Samuel Cason
“Site Formation Processes and Sediment Sources of the Genevieve Lykes Duncan Site”—Brittney Gregory and Charles Frederick
“A Synopsis of Over Ten Years of Research on the 02 Ranch, Brewster and Presidio Counties, Texas”—Robert Gray
“Images of America: Alpine”—David W. Keller
“Middle Archaic People of Eastern Trans-Pecos Texas: Their Life and Times 2500–1000 B.C.”—Andrea Ohl
“Bee Cave–Black Hills Project: Searching for Cultural and Temporal Patterns”—Reeda Peel-Fleming
“Revealing the Obscure: Innovative Imaging of Petroglyphs and Other Archaeological Phenomena”—Mark D. Willis“Late Quaternary Stratigraphic Setting of the Genevieve Lykes Duncan, 02 Ranch, Brewster County, Texas”—David Yelacic, Charles D. Frederick, and Brittney Gregory
"Paleoindians in the Big Bend: Preliminary Investigations at the Genevieve Lykes Duncan Site (41BS2615), 02 Ranch”—Robert J. Mallouf and William A. Cloud