This fall the American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) Speaker Series will feature the following scholars every other Friday, 11:15 am- 1:10 pm, 400 Caldwell Hall. These lectures are part of a bi-weekly graduate seminar (required for graduate students getting a minor in AIIS). They are open to the public to attend.
SEP 30: CRAIG WOMACK (Creek-Cherokee)
Associate Professor, Department of English, Emory College of Arts and Sciences The Creek Fiddle Dance
Craig Womack received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1995 and has taught both there and at institutions such as the University of Lethbridge and the University of Nebraska. Craig Womack teaches American Indian literature at Emory University and is the author of Art as Performance, Story as Criticism. He is a leading figure in Native American literary studies, and among his published works is the widely influential Red on Red: Native American Literary Separatism, as well as the novel, Drowning in Fire... read more.
OCT 14: LLOYD LEE (Diné)
Associate Professor of Native American Studies, University of New Mexico
Contemporary Traditional Navajo Identity Markers
Lloyd L. Lee is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. He is Kinyaa’1anii (Towering House), born for T[’11sch77 (Red Bottom). His maternal grandfather’s clan is !sh88h7 (Salt) and his paternal grandfather’s clan is T1b22h1 (Water’s Edge). He received a B.A. in History from Dartmouth College, an M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. His first faculty position was at Arizona State University at the West Campus in the Languages, Cultures, and History Department. He later joined the Native American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico. He is currently an Associate Professor in Native American Studies, former Director of the Institute for American Indian Research (IFAIR), and a Council member of the American Indian Studies Association (AISA). He is the author of Diné Masculinities: Conceptualizations and Reflections (2013) and edited Diné Perspectives: Reclaiming and Revitalizing Navajo Thought (2014). His research focuses on American Indian identity, masculinities, leadership, philosophies, and community building.
OCT 28: MALIA VILLEGAS (Sugpiaq/Alutiiq)
EdD, Director, NCAI Policy Research Center
Tribal Priorities in Research Policy and Ethics
Malia Villegas, EdD, EdM, is the Director of the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center. She is an enrolled member of the Native Village of Afognak in Alaska, where she also serves on the Tribal Council. The NCAI Policy Research Center was established in 2003 to provide tribal leaders with the best available knowledge to inform their strategic policy decision within a framework of Native wisdom to positively impact the future of Native peoples. Dr. Villegas has extensive experience in tribal research governance and leads projects on building tribal data capacity, improving the translation of diabetes research, strengthening the dissemination of community-based participatory research, and fostering Native youth resilience. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of American Indian Education and previously served as an Editor of the Harvard Educational Review. Dr. Villegas earned her master’s degree and doctorate in Culture, Communities, and Education at Harvard University and completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University... read more.
NOV 11: KIMBERLY BLAESER (Minnesota Chippewa/ Anishinaabe)
Professor of Creative Writing, Native American Literature, and American Nature Writing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin Poet Laureate
"Where the World Hurts": Madeline Island as a Palimpsest of Anishinaabe Myth, History, and Environmental Knowledge
Kimberly Blaeser is a Professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she teaches Creative Writing and Native American Literatures. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Apprenticed to Justice, Absentee Indians and Other Poems, and Trailing You. Blaeser is Anishinaabe, an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, and grew up on the White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota. She is the editor of Stories Migrating Home: A Collection of Anishinaabe Prose and Traces in Blood, Bone, and Stone: Contemporary Ojibwe Poetry. Blaeser, is currently at work on a collection of “Picto-Poems” which combines her photographs and poetry...read more.
NOV 18: TIMOTHY VASKO (Cherokee) 
Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Government, Cornell University
“The World Ends: Ethnographic Knowledge and Early Colonial Governance in the Western Hemisphere, 1410-1535”
Timothy Vasko is a Ph.D Candidate in the Department of Government, in the fields of International Relations and Political Thought. His research focuses on colonial governance and the history of the human sciences.
This seminar is led by Dr. Troy Richardson, Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor, American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS). For a full course description please visit our online course roster.