Laura Padilla-Walker, dean of the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, and Jay H. Buckley, director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, are pleased to announce the appointment of Brian Q. Cannon, professor of history at BYU, to the Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr., Chair in Western American History at Brigham Young University. His initial three-year term began July 1.
“Brian’s success at integrating Utah history into the broader history of the American West — and of the United States — is seen through his impressive list of publications and leadership with several historical societies,” said Buckley. “He is committed to telling stories of lesser-known people and places and, as one of the state’s best historians, he is a deserving recipient of the honor this chair carries.”
The Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Chair in Western American History was established in 1972 by Charles and Annaley Redd, prominent Utah ranchers and philanthropists, to promote and honor research, publication, and teaching in western American history. The chair is named in honor of Charlie Redd’s father, who settled and developed Latter-day Saint communities in southeastern Utah’s slickrock desert and established a sprawling livestock empire. Previous chair holders include noted historians Leonard J. Arrington (1973–1987), James B. Allen (1987–1992), Thomas G. Alexander (1992–2006), and Ignacio M. Garcia (2006–2025).
Cannon has excelled in scholarly work and published articles in premier journals such as Agricultural History; BYU Studies; Journal of Mormon History; Montana, the Magazine of Western History; Utah Historical Quarterly; and Western Historical Quarterly.
He has published in areas such as agricultural, Utah, LDS, and western history. Authored or edited books include: David O. McKay (in press, 2025); Reconstruction and Mormon America (with Clyde A. Milner, II, eds.; 2019); The Awkward State of Utah: Coming of Age in the Nation, 1896–1945 (with Charles S. Peterson; 2015); Immigrants in the Far West: Historical Identities and Experiences (with Jessie L. Embry; 2014); Reopening the Frontier: Homesteading in the Modern West (2009); Utah in the Twentieth Century (with Jessie L. Embry, eds.; 2009); and Remaking the Agrarian Dream: New Deal Rural Resettlement in the Mountain West (1996).
Cannon served as director of the Redd Center from January 2003 through August 2018. He has served on the Utah Historical Quarterly editorial board for over a decade and as president of both the Mormon History Association and the Agricultural History Society and is a fellow of the Utah Historical Society.
Cannon recently completed a term of service as History Department chair (2019–2025). He joined the department in 1992 and was promoted to full professor in 2009. He earned a BA in American studies at BYU, an MA in history at Utah State University, and a PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
For more information on the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University, visit https://reddcenter.byu.edu.