The free, public event, hosted by the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands and Peoples of the North American West, will begin at 6 p.m. in Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies. A reception will follow.

The scholars will address issues raised in Gaines Quammen’s new book, “True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America,” including the myths and conflicts that affect the contemporary West and its citizens.

Gaines Quammen received a doctorate from MSU in religion, history and the philosophy of science. Her dissertation focused on Mormon history and the roots of armed public land conflicts in the United States. Gaines Quammen said she is fascinated by how religious views shape relationships to landscape. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Daily News and the History News Network. She is the author of “American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West.”

Carr Childers is an associate professor of history at Colorado State University who specializes in environmental and public history of the American West. Her first book, “The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin,” won the Western Writers of America 2016 Spur Award for Contemporary Nonfiction. Her research has been featured on PBS “Frontline,” Nevada Public Radio's “State of Nevada” and in the High Country News. Her current projects include “Art of Ranching,” a collaboration with CSU Extension that engages youth in intergenerational storytelling; a history of the USDA Forest Service from 1960 to the present; and a history of the long Sagebrush Rebellion in the context of climate change.