Book Festival

San Juan County, Blanding, Utah

Blanding Public Library, October 9, 2009 at 7 p.m.

“The OTHER Half of History”

If we do not study the contributions of women to the settlement of the West, we effectively halve history.  Judy Busk’s presentation will explore this “other” half, inviting discussion from audience members on their perceptions of women’s roles in the western movement. This program is an opportunity for both men and women to express and dialogue their ideas.  Judy’s presentation is based on her book, The Sum of Our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women.

Judy Shell Busk is a retired high school English and journalism teacher.  In 1993, she was one of thirty-four teachers in the United States selected to be a National Endowment for the Humanities/Reader’s Digest Teacher Scholar. Her grant replaced her teacher salary for the 1993-94 school year and provided time and opportunity to explore her topic, “Nineteenth Century Pioneer Women:  Public Images/Private Attitudes.”  As part of her study, she retraced the Oregon and Mormon trails, stopping at places along the trail to read related pioneer diaries and memoirs; she also talked with mentors and studied about pioneer women from various texts, developing emotional as well as intellectual insights into her subjects.

Judy has been active in oral history endeavors, using her high school students to interview, transcribe, and archive over four hundred oral histories. She served on the Board of Directors for the Utah Humanities Council for six years, from 1999 to 2005. She was previously a member of UHC’s Speakers Bureau, talking on oral history and pioneer women. She is currently part of UHC’s Utah’s Public Square program, speaking on her book, The Sum of Our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women, published in 2004, which grew out of her research and master’s thesis work.