Kimberly A. Williams wants the annual Calgary Stampede to change its ways. An intrepid feminist scholar with a wry sense of humour, Williams deftly weaves theory, history, pop culture and politics to challenge readers to make sense of how gender and race matter at Canada’s oldest and largest western heritage festival. Stampede examines the settler colonial roots of the Calgary Stampede and uses its centennial celebration in 2012 to explore how the event continues to influence life on the streets and in the bars and boardrooms of Canada’s fourth-largest city. Using a variety of cultural materials—photography, print advertisements, news coverage, poetry and social media—Williams asks who gets to be part of the “we” in the Stampede’s slogan “We’re Greatest Together,” and who doesn’t.

Kimberly A. Williams is a teacher, activist, and award-winning author committed to exploring things that are missing, that have been disappeared and/or rendered invisible in the stories we tell about ourselves. Her first book, Imagining Russia (2012) won the SUNY Press First Book Award in women’s and gender studies, and her research on evacuating pets from Fort McMurray during the 2016 wildfire has been featured on the UN’s disaster prevention website. She also offers a popular walking tour, Booze, Broads & Brothels, that unearths the history of Calgary’s robust sex trade industry. William holds a PhD in women’s studies from the University of Maryland and now directs the women’s and gender studies program at Mount Royal University in Calgary, in Treaty 7 territory.

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