University Advancement

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NEWS RELEASE

CSUN History Professor Named Butcher Scholar
by Institute for the Study of the American West

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Aug. 30, 2006) -- Cal State Northridge assistant history professor Flannery Burke has been named the 2006 Butcher Scholar by the Institute for the Study of the American West at the Autry National Center.

The award, established in 2001 by the Women of the West Museum, is intended to support the work of a promising scholar whose project demonstrates innovation and creativity, and enhances a current museum initiative.

Burke received the honor for her current book project on New York socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan, whose interest and patronage helped create an early 20th century art community that flourished in Taos, New Mexico, and attracted such luminaries as Georgia O’Keeffe.

Burke, who is working on her book while on a year’s leave from the university, said she was "very pleased" to receive the award.

"The award [which includes $5,000] will definitely help me finish my book," Burke said. "And it provides me with an opportunity to highlight my research on a woman who made a difference in how the West was seen during her time."

As a Butcher Scholar, Burke’s work will be featured at a public forum at the Autry National Center and showcased on the Autry Center Web site.

Burke’s book is about Luhan, an independently wealthy socialite who hosted salons for the artists and intellectuals in New York and Europe. Luhan followed her third husband, an artist, in 1910’s to New Mexico, where she fell in love with the beautiful landscape and its people. After some time in Taos, Luhan divorced husband number three and married Tony Lujan, a Pueblo Indian. She changed the spelling of her married name to make it easier for her Anglo friends to pronounce.

Mabel Dodge Luhan was an advocate for New Mexico’s Native American population and used her money, prestige and influence to lure some of the era’s greatest artists and intellectuals to the area, including D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, John Marin, John Collier, who later became commissioner for Indian affairs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and O’Keeffe.

"Because she was independently wealthy, Mabel Dodge Luhan was not constrained by the social and economic concerns that held back so many women of her time," Burke said. "She saw her wealth as an opportunity to support a revolution not just in the arts, but in politics."

The Autry National Center is an intercultural history center formed from the merger of three museums: the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of the American West and the Women of the West Museum. The Los Angeles-based center presents a wide variety of programs and events throughout the year on the diverse arts and cultures of the American West.

Burke has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She specializes in the history of the American West, cultural history and the history of gender and sexuality.

Burke was raised by a family of teachers who instilled in her a profound respect for teaching at all levels. She often quotes her grandfather, who taught high school chemistry and was fond of saying, "Those who can, teach. Those who can’t, go into a less significant line of work."

In addition to her teaching duties in the history department, Burke also is a fellow with Cal State Northridge’s Teachers for a New Era, a landmark initiative designed to strengthen K-12 teaching by developing state-of-the-art programs at schools of education. It is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.