Mountain Scholar
Mountain Scholar is an open access repository service that collects, preserves, and provides access to digitized library collections and other scholarly and creative works from Colorado State University and the University Press of Colorado. It also serves as a dark archive for the Open Textbook Library.
Communities in Mountain Scholar
Select a community to browse its collections.
- Explore the Colorado State University community’s scholarly output as well as items from the University at large and the CSU Libraries.
- A limited number of titles are available here. To see all OTL titles, please visit the Open Textbook Library at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. Only Open Textbook Library staff have access to all OTL Archive titles held in Mountain Scholar.
- Access is limited to University Press of Colorado members. Non-members: to purchase books, please visit https://upcolorado.com/.
Recent Submissions
Ashes and adaptations: exploring fire adaptations through a podcast mini-series
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Paa, Peyton, author; Neuwald, Jennifer, advisor; Hart, Sarah, advisor
"Ashes and Adaptations" is a five-episode podcast mini-series discussing plant adaptations shaped by fire. The goal of the project was to create an overview of fire as an evolutionary force and explain how climate change is harmful to fire-adapted ecosystems. The audience was intended to be the general public, not just those within the scientific community. The series begins with an overview of evolution, discussing the mechanisms behind the process, how adaptations arise, and correcting the common misconceptions surrounding the topic. Then, the next three episodes dive into specific fire adaptations, including thick bark, serotiny, and the wide variety of adaptations contained within the iconic Eucalyptus tree. Finally, the series ends with a panel discussion with fire scientists Jamie Woolet and Sarah Hettema, discussing their work related to fire ecology and issues they've seen fire-adapted ecosystems facing today. With the generous help of Dr. Neuwald and Dr. Hart as advisors, this podcast was able to come into fruition. This project combined many of the skills I have fostered throughout my undergraduate experience, including research and writing, while also utilizing the knowledge I have gained from my classes in natural resources.
The importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in veterinary medicine: advocacy through art
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Negron, Justine Adrianna, author; Aubry, Lise, advisor; Blanco, Cristina, committee member; Sadar, Miranda, committee member
Veterinary medicine has traditionally faced a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in its workforce. Despite ongoing efforts to minimize this issue, such as American Veterinary Medical Association diversity symposia and recruitment efforts by veterinary schools, 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' continues to be a modern challenge for the field. This honors thesis aims to answer the following: Why does racial and ethnic diversity in veterinary medicine matter? By using private organizational research, government statistics, interdisciplinary journal articles, and books, this project argues that diversity in veterinary medicine matters for three reasons: i) enabling better client-provider communication via diverse perspectives and cultural competency, ii) creating increased profitability and thus financial security for veterinary business institutions, and iii) allowing for better understanding/problem-solving of complex issues, which could impact society in sectors like public health. Given that visual art can cross cultural and language barriers to convey ideas and mobilize societies, three paintings were created to further communicate these themes. Taken together, the written and artistic components are meant to serve as educational tools, aiming to promote continued research and efforts toward increasing veterinary diversity to bolster the profession's relevance in serving today's communities.
Claire Havenhill: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Havenhill, Claire, artist
The artist's statement: Creating art has always been my personal outlet for processing complex emotions, using it to communicate my inner monologue, especially when unable to synthesize thoughts into words. Conceptually, my work tends to initially catalyze from internal struggles, often addressing issues of self-perception, sense of place, and personal evolution in the context of the world around me. I frequently take an iconographic approach to storytelling, using unique arrangements of universal motifs, commonly from the natural world, to communicate my message to a wider audience. My work often mirrors widespread idioms, expressions, and folklore, which I use as means of connecting my internal conscience to the universal human experience. As an artist, printmaking is where my artistic passion lies. I have a deep appreciation for the endless possibilities of print media and am continuously entranced by its process-based nature. Though printmaking is known as a method of producing identical multiples, I often create variable editions to give each print an individual, unique touch. I choose to work primarily with traditional stone lithography, drawn to its technically complex and procedural nature that is equally challenging, frustrating, and rewarding. Visually, I gravitate to printmaking because of its unique textural capabilities, in which I often overlap with iconographic and illustrative scenes. Working with this craft requires me to practice trust, resilience, and adaptability in my making process, forcing me to accept my failures and persist, nonetheless. These core aspects of printmaking appropriately mirror my purpose in making art, which exists as my main means of processing every corner of my life.
Aiden Lundien: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Lundien, Aiden, artist
The artist's statement: My name is Aiden Lundien, and I'm an aspiring filmmaker based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ever since I was a child, I was enamored by the art of filmmaking, and it was instrumental to my development as a person. Everybody is born under different circumstances. Our upbringing is unique, where we were born is unique, and who we have grown to be is unique. The goal of civilization and progress is to reach out and empathize with other people and discover what makes them tick, and what they care about. Movies have helped me connect with others, and taught me how to understand how another person is feeling. Exploring these universal connections and emotions has become my primary goal as an artist. I want to tell stories that are raw and bring people together to feel something, and I explore these connections through digital and analog filmmaking/photography. I don't strive to create because it's cute. I strive to create because I'm a member of the human race. Art, beauty, romance, love; these are the things we stay alive for.
Hazel Shelton: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Shelton, Hazel, artist
The artist's statement: I make paintings of landscapes and the beings that inhabit them. I am inspired by dreams, almost-too-close observations of the world around me, weird animals, the unloved and weird and otherwise underappreciated (be it worms or people), and multispecies theory. My paintings are celebrations of the sentience of their inhabitants and how our proximity to them changes us. They are meditations on questions like what might happen if we spend time close to a particularly insightful Gila monster – even if she never shares what she knows. As I paint, I am interested in creating feelings that defy easy categorization. At the simplest level, I invite strangeness. While strangeness can feel uncomfortable, I have found it also pairs well with good humor and curiosity. I approach painting with an interest in the materials I am using, constantly experimenting with techniques and recognizing the materials' agency as I work with – and sometimes against – them. I love the endless approaches you can take with oil paint, and how it invites chaos at every turn. With enough solvent, thick paint becomes fractals that slip unpredictably down the face of the canvas. Inevitably, the paint finds its way onto surfaces that have never been close to a palette. Oil paint creates a web of mess that offers only one solution: keep painting.