Dr. Jane Close Conoley serves as the 7th president of California State University, Long Beach and is the first woman to hold the position on a permanent basis. Dr. Conoley is retiring from her post at the end of August 2025, marking over 11 years in the role.
One of Dr. Conoley’s favorite recent books is Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis by Patricia Cleary, Ph.D. “This book is the result of a careful and rigorous study of the Mounds created by Indigenous people living in the area we now call St. Louis,” says Dr. Conoley. “The author is deft in describing the historical contexts that surrounded both the Indigenous populations and the settlers who were motivated by a clear conviction of the manifest destiny of the United States to expand and remake the land into contemporary needs.”
Book: Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis
Author: Patricia Cleary, Ph.D
“We're in an era of heightened book banning and legislative efforts to remove certain facts from curriculums offered to students at all levels of education. The Mound City is just one example of a history that could have been lost except for Dr. Cleary's enormous efforts,” explains Dr. Conoley. “It is common and accurate knowledge that victors get to write history, and that history often presents the defeated in unattractive ways. Being aware of this gives us an enormous chance to educate ourselves about those others whose voices may have gone unheard.”
