UW Department Launches Website to Share Stories of Everyday Wyomingites

The University of Wyoming Department of English recently launched a website featuring stories, photos and a podcast that highlight the voices and experiences of everyday Wyomingites. The website can be found at www.restoryingthewest.org.

 

The project, titled “Re-Storying the West for a Transformative Future: We Are Wyoming,” is led by UW Associate Professor Nancy Small, along with a team of graduate students in the public humanities Ph.D. program.

 

Marking the end of its first year, Re-Storying the West brings campus collaborators together with community partners around the state.

 

The project also supports UW’s Ph.D. program in English, focused on producing expert writers and scholars who will work in public humanities. This program welcomed its second cohort of students last month and provides opportunities to engage directly with communities across the state.

 

“Re-Storying the West is proud to be a feature program for the Department of English,” Small says. “Over the past year, we have had the wonderful experience of meeting people from across the state. We gathered stories in Laramie, Cheyenne, Rock River, Saratoga, Casper and Buffalo. In the process, we learned a lot about the folks who create the uniquely welcoming and magical culture of our state.”

 

Re-Storying the West’s key team members include Misty Springer, Aubrey Edwards and Hallie Guidry, all doctoral students in English at UW. Springer took the lead in writing, recording and producing a podcast about stories around the state, with the first episode released Sept. 1 and more episodes to follow in upcoming weeks. Edwards specialized in developing community contacts, facilitating events and gathering photographs during their activities. Guidry supported the original design and organizational plans for the website.

 

The grant’s second year just began and welcomes three new contributors. Jess Ryan joins as a new doctoral student, while Nichole Nomura and Rob Jackson, UW assistant professors, join the team as specializing in digital humanities and Indigenous literature. Team members are planning an upcoming year of professional development sessions that will be open to both UW and the broader Wyoming community.

 

In addition to supporting the statewide story-gathering activities, the project awards subgrants to faculty members at UW and community colleges for teaching, research and outreach featuring humanities practices and topics. Over the past year, almost $20,000 went to teacher-scholars in departments, including Modern and Classical Languages; Anthropology; Theatre and Dance; and Philosophy and Religious Studies.

 

Small says she is proud of what the team accomplished in the first year. Starting a statewide public humanities initiative proved a much larger task than she had anticipated but also was a work of great joy because of the partnerships it has inspired.

 

The new website serves as a hub for the initiative, which began in 2024 with the goal of creating a living public archive of Wyoming narratives. Visitors will find featured stories, podcasts and other multimedia content from residents in communities across the state. More stories will be added throughout the year.

 

The project expands the way Wyoming is represented by documenting local voices and celebrating the wide range of lived experiences across the state.

 

For more information or to explore the archive, visit www.restoryingthewest.org. Those interested in sharing their stories can email storytelling@uwyo.edu.