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Yolonda Youngs, professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State San Bernardino, will present the 2025 Ronald and Nelani Walker Lecture at the Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University beginning at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6.
The talk will be live streamed on You Tube on the BYU Redd Center channel.
She will discuss her award-winning book, “Framing Nature: The Creation of an American Icon at the Grand Canyon,” sharing the results from 15 years of fieldwork and analysis of 150 years of popular imagery such as postcards, maps and photographs have transformed the Grand Canyon into an iconic symbol of American cultural identity.
The Association of American Geographers earlier this year awarded Youngs with the John Brinkerhoff Jackson Prize, the highest honor in the disciple given to American geographers who write books that “convey the insights of professional geography in language that is both interesting and attractive to lay readers,” according the association’s website.
Youngs, who joined the CSUSB Department of Geography and Environmental Studies in 2021, has written or co-authored more than 30 journal articles, books, book chapters, and book reviews, scientific reports, and essays featuring her research in sites across the U.S. National Park Service system.
In addition to “Framing Nature,” she edited “The American Environment Revisited: Environmental Historical Geographies of the United States” with Geoffrey Buckley. Her research is funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. National Park Service, and the Cooperative Ecosystem Services Network, and the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District.
Founded in 1972, the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies promotes the study of the Intermountain American West by funding scholarship, public programming, and teaching, and supporting work in any discipline that explores the region in all its facets.
