2026 Pilster Great Plains Lecture
Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 7:30pm Mountain Time
Chadron State College Student Center Ballroom
Dr. Peter Kopp, 2026 Pilster Lecturer
Associate Professor & Co-Director of Public History Program, University of Colorado-Denver
Dr. Kopp is a public historian of the North American West with specialties in the history of agriculture and the environment. His book, Hoptopia: A World of Agriculture and Beer in Oregon’s Willamette Valley (University of California Press, 2016) won the American Historical Association’s Pacific Coast Branch Book Award for first time authors (2017). Dr. Kopp has also written articles and developed public history projects on tourism and the National Park Service, the built environment of the Southwest borderlands, and the “green” activism of the Grateful Dead. Currently, he is preparing a book manuscript on Fabián García, the “Father of New Mexico Chile.” Kopp earned his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada in 2012 and served as the Director of Public History at New Mexico State University from 2012-2019.
About the Pilster Great Plains Lecture
The Pilster Great Plains Lecture Series, hosted annually by the Mari Sandoz Society and Chadron State College, brings nationally renowned speakers and writers to Nebraska to explore the history, culture, and environment of the Great Plains. Funded by the Esther and Raleigh Pilster Fund, the free public events often highlight topics like regional immigration, politics, the flora and fauna of the Great Plains, Western and Native American history, as well as the literary legacy of author Mari Sandoz.
In 2006, the late Esther Pilster gave a gift of ranchland in northwest Nebraska near Whitney in Dawes County, to the Mari Sandoz Society. The gift established an endowment with the Mari Sandoz Society as a tribute to her late husband Raleigh, who grew up on the ranch, and his parents John and Grace Pilster. As a beloved teacher and school administrator for 44-years, Esther served 29-years as principal at Boyd Elementary School in Omaha. Esther wanted her gift to honor the courage and tenacity shown by Raleigh’s parents and others who lived on the Great Plains. The Pilster Great Plains Lecture Series and other programs of the Society are in part, funded by the Pilster endowment.
