Center for the Humanities Events

Daniel Wildcat, Ph.D., (Muscogee/Creek)

Professor of Indigenous and American Indian Studies

Haskell Indian Nations University
Thursday, May 8, 2025
HSSC S3325, 7 p.m.

Dan Wildcat (Yuchi/Muscogee): Education & Indigenous Realism, Thursday, May 8, 2025, 7 p.m., Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) S3325.

According to Dan Wildcat, “one sign of the times is people speaking ad nauseum about the way A.I. will make our lives so much better. Yet, artificial Intelligence is ‘artificial’ and its ‘intelligence’ is largely disembodied – lost in space. In a world of ‘isms’ and ‘ologies’ projected onto the flat-screen ‘realities’ people increasingly spend their time ‘experiencing’, we would do well to reconsider and reengage the realities beyond our flat-screens and consider AI 1.0, ‘ancestral intelligence,’ emergent from human experience beyond our flat-screen devices and out-of-doors. Situating our learning, knowing, and doing in the multidimensional world we experience unencumbered by smart devices represents knowledges we desperately need now. It might well be that smart devices make dumb people.”

Wildcat is a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and an accomplished scholar who writes on Indigenous knowledge, technology, environment, and education. He is also director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center, which he founded with colleagues from the Center for Hazardous Substance Research at Kansas State University. Wildcat helped design a four-part video series entitled All Things Are Connected: The Circle of Life (1997), which dealt with the land, air, water, biological, and policy issues facing Native nations. A Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Wildcat recently formed the American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group, a tribal-college-centered network of individuals and organizations working on climate change issues. In 2008, he helped organize the Planning for Seven Generations climate change conference sponsored by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He is the author, most recently, of On Indigenuity: Learning the Lessons of Mother Earth (Fulcrum Publishing, 2023).

This event is part of the Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge, and Liberal Arts series sponsored by the Center for the Humanities.

Accommodations are available for persons with disabilities as guests of the College. If you need an accommodation to attend an event that is open to the public, contact either the department sponsoring the event or the Office of Safety and Security (641-269-4600), and they will assist you with the accommodation that you need. Minors under the age 18 need to be accompanied by an adult. ��ϳԹ� is not responsible for supervision of minors on campus.

Scholars’ Convocation: Jen Shook, Ph.D.

Humanities Center Faculty Fellow, 2024–25

Thursday, April 10, 2025
HSSC A1231, 11 a.m.

Instead of RedFace: Relational Trails in "Indian Country," Onstage, Online, and IRL

What connects performance history, digital presence, and Indigenous futurities? How do we revisit the past without reifying the same old stories? 2024–25 Humanities Center Fellow Jen Shook navigates these intersections with digital and performance dramaturgies and pedagogies from small local archives to new Vivero projects.

Jen Shook is an assistant professor of theatre, dance, and performance studies, and affiliated faculty with digital studies and American studies. Her practice lives at the intersections of performance, literature, cultural memory, Indigenous studies, community engagement, and digital liberal arts. Her in-process book manuscript, Unghosting Tribalographies: Performing Oklahoma-as-Indian-Territory examines transcultural collaborations and Native American performers’ reworkings of historical commemorations in the microcosm of her home state.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Scholars’ Convocation Committee.

Scholars’ Convocation: LeAnne Howe

LeAnne Howe wearing sunglasses looking up in the sky.

Eidson Distinguished Professor in American Literature, University of Georgia
Thursday, April 3, 2025
JRC 101, 11 a.m.

A Choctaw In King Abdullah's Court

My life in Amman Jordan during the Arab Spring of 2010-2011 gave me a perspective on colonization, the "will to power" and how one man's sacrifice in Tunisia really did change the region. For the past 14 years I've tried to consider all that I witnessed as a stranger in a foreign land.

A Choctaw In King Abdullah's Court, a memoir, aims to capture the humor, and often despair of being alone among a sea of indigenous peoples that only know of American Indians as cartoons, or dead heroes.

LeAnne Howe, Eidson Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia, connects literature, Indigenous knowledge, Native histories, and expressive cultures in her work. Her interests include Native and indigenous literatures, performance studies, film, and Indigeneity.

LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) is the recipient of a United States Artists (USA) Ford Fellowship, Lifetime Achievement Award by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, American Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, and she was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to Jordan. In October 2015, Howe received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association, (WLA); and in 2014 she received the Modern Languages Association inaugural prize for Studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, for her short story collection, Choctalking on Other Realities. I Fuck Up In Japan, a story from the collection has been reprinted in many journals.

Howe received an MFA from Vermont College, (2000) and shares a Native and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) award for literary criticism with eleven other scholars for Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collective, named one of the ten most influential books of the first decade of the twenty-first century for indigenous scholarship, 2011. She’s lectured nationally and internationally giving the Richard Hoggart Series lecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and the Keynes Lecture at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK among others. In 1993 she lectured throughout Japan as an American Indian representative during the United Nations “International Year of Indigenous People.”

Other books by Howe include, Shell Shaker, 2001, (American Book award) Evidence of Red, 2005, (Oklahoma Book Award), Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story, 2007, and Choctalking on Other Realities, 2013.

She's co-edited a book of essays on Native films with Harvey Markowitz, and Denise K. Cummings titled, Seeing Red, Pixeled Skins: American Indians and Film, 2013. In 2014, a special issue of Studies of American Indian Literature, SAIL, Vol. 26, Number 2, Summer, was published and is an exploration by six scholars on Howe's literary concept of Tribalography.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Scholars’ Convocation Committee.

Ray Young Bear ’76

Conversation in the Humanities
Organized by Pride vs. Prejudice Student Organization
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Harris Center Concert Hall, note: location change
7–9 p.m., (This event will last two hours)

“From Red Earth Drive: Creating Meskwaki Poetry and Songs through Animism and a Series of Otherworldly Events”

Ray Young Bear is a lifetime resident of the Meskwaki Settlement in central Iowa. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Virginia Quarterly Review, New Letters, Prairies Schooner, the Iowa Review, the American Poetry Review, and the Best American Poetry, and have been collected into three books: Winter of the Salamander: The Keeper of Importance (Harper & Row, 1980); The Invisible Musician (Holy Cow! Press, 1990); and The Rock Island Hiking Club (University of Iowa Press, 2001). He also wrote Black Eagle Child (University of Iowa Press, 1992), a novel combining prose and poetry that was heralded by the New York Times as “magnificent.” Its sequel, Remnants of the First Earth (Grove Press, 1998), won the Ruth Suckow Award as an outstanding work of fiction about Iowa.

The recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ray Young Bear has taught creative writing and Native American literature at numerous schools across the United States, including the University of Iowa and the Institute of American Indian Arts. A singer as well as an author, Young Bear is a cofounder of the Woodland Singers & Dancers, which performs contemporary and traditional tribal dances throughout the country.

Ray Young Bear’s presentation will be in three parts.

The talk, which is basically a narration of the creative process, past and present, where selected poems are read and explained. This includes a contrast of previously published poems in English and new poems composed in the Meskwaki language. These first language compositions are often introduced and shared as tribal word-songs performed with a hand drum.
After the talk, there will be a question-and-answer period.
The final presentation will be members of the Meskwaki Nation singing, dancing, and drum playing.

This event is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by Pride versus Prejudice student book club, The Center for the Humanities, and Writers@��ϳԹ�.

Accommodations are available for persons with disabilities as guests of the College. If you need an accommodation to attend an event that is open to the public, contact either the department sponsoring the event or the Office of Safety and Security (641-269-4600), and they will assist you with the accommodation that you need. Minors under the age 18 need to be accompanied by an adult. ��ϳԹ� is not responsible for supervision of minors on campus.

Bailey Dann ’17

Thursday, November 21, 2024

HSSC S1325, 4:15 p.m.

“Where the Medicine Grows: Healing Generational Trauma through Land, Language, and Culture”

In this talk, Bailey Dann will weave together the stories of her family and her community's journey to reclaim what was nearly lost—our languages, our culture, our connection to the land. Grounded in both personal experience and community resilience, she'll explore how the deep roots of language, culture, and land offer pathways to healing generational trauma, particularly the lasting scars of boarding schools. From imposed silence to the resurgence of our voices, this presentation reveals how cultural revitalization, language growth, and land-based traditions are restoring strength where the medicine grows—in our teachings, our land, and our shared histories. Through reflections and stories, she'll offer insights into how Indigenous practices, knowledge systems, and tribal sovereignty guide us toward collective healing and enduring resilience.

Bailey J. Dann (Shoshone- Bannock) graduated from ��ϳԹ� in ��ϳԹ�, Iowa, in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Studio Art, and she additionally completed the Teacher Education Program. Following graduation, Bailey dedicated four years to teaching the Shoshoni language at Chief Tahgee Elementary Academy in Fort Hall, ID. Recognizing the pressing need for Shoshoni language curriculum development, Bailey pursued and earned her master's degree in Anthropology at Idaho State University in 2023 with a focus on linguistic anthropology. Today, Bailey serves as a Research and Education Specialist at her Tribes’ Language and Cultural Preservation Department, operating within the Office of Original Territories and Historical Research. Her responsibilities span diverse research and education projects, collaborating with state, federal, and nonprofit entities, including the National Park Service, National Forest Service, museums, libraries, and other educational institutions. Additionally, she contributes to the documentation of cultural and historic sites within the Tribes' original lands while coordinating educational initiatives and developing interpretive materials for Shoshone-Bannock tribal members, students, and the public. Bailey also works to develop Indigenous language curriculum tools and is establishing a certification process for Shoshone language teachers in her community. Furthermore, she serves as a board member and secretary on Chief Tahgee Elementary Academy's Board of Directors, reinforcing her dedication to education and community service. In her free time, Bailey enjoys weaving, sewing, beading, hide tanning, and oil painting.

A Conversation Around Post-Election Concerns and Issues

Friday, November 8, 2024
HSSC A2231, 4 – 5:30 p.m.

Join us for an open conversation where folks can exchange ideas and feelings without worrying about being attacked. Our goal, after exchanging thoughts, concerns, feelings, and fears, is that we move the conversation toward the values that hold us together in our roles as students, staff, faculty, and administrators who work together in a residential community.

Co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, Center for Prairie Studies, Data and Social Inquiry Lab (DASIL), Donald and Winifred Wilson Center for Innovation & Leadership, Peace and Conflict Studies, Rosenfield Program, and Writers@��ϳԹ�.

Eric Zimmer

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024

Join Eric Zimmer for a discussion about his book!
4 p.m., Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room A2231 (Auditorium) — Note change in location

Eric Zimmer will lead a book discussion about his book, Red Earth Nation: A History of the Meskwaki Settlement.

In 1857, the Meskwaki Nation purchased an eighty-acre parcel of land along the Iowa River. With that modest plot secured as a place to rest and rebuild after centuries of devastation and dispossession, the Meskwaki, or "Red Earth People," began to reclaim their homeland — an effort that Native nations continue to this day in what has recently come to be called the #Landback movement. Red Earth Nation explores the long history of #Landback through the Meskwaki Nation’s story, one of the oldest and clearest examples of direct-purchase Indigenous land reclamation in American history.

Public Talk: “Reclaiming the Indigenous Midwest: The Meskwaki Settlement as #Landback”
7 PM, Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room A2231 (Auditorium)

Eric Zimmer, is a historian from the Black Hills of South Dakota. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and is currently pursuing a certificate in nonprofit leadership through the Harvard Kennedy School’s executive education program. Zimmer serves as the director of philanthropy at the . There, he works with a wonderfully talented team to drive strategic philanthropy across his home region and help make the Black Hills thrive, forever.

Book Cover of " Red Earth Nation: A History of the Meskwaki Settlement"

From 2022 to 2023, Zimmer was the A.B. Hammond Visiting Assistant Professor of Western United States History at the University of Montana. There, he completed his most recent book, , which is available from the University of Oklahoma Press. That project explores the remarkable story of the Meskwaki Nation, a Native American tribe in Iowa that bought back some of its homeland in 1857. The Meskwaki story offers context and insight for anyone interested in the modern movement to reclaim Indigenous lands in the US and elsewhere.

This event is sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, Office of Admission and Financial Aid, Community Partnerships, Planning and Research, the Rosenfield Program, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Zimmer has committed to donating any royalties from the , modest though they are, to the Meskwaki Nation, usually the Meskwaki Settlement School.

Ned Blackhawk

Howard R. Lamar Professor of History, Yale University

Photo by Dan Rensetti

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024
Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center, Room 101, 7 p.m.

“Resisting the Mythology of Indigenous Disappearance: Native Activists in the Early 20th-Century World”

Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) is one of the most significant historians of his generation. He is the author of Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West (Harvard University Press, 2008). This book was recognized by the Organization of American Historians with the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for best first book, in addition to many other awards.

Book cover of "The Rediscovery of America: Native People and the Unmaking of U.S. History" — 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction

Most recently, Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (Yale UP, 2023), has garnered an impressive array of awards, including the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Blackhawk is also co-editor, with Ben Kiernan, Benjamin Madley, and Rebe Taylor, of Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern, and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One, which constitutes volume II of the three-volume The Cambridge World History of Genocide, (New York: Cambridge University Press, June 2023). He also co-edited Indigenous Visions: Rediscovering the Legacy of Franz Boas, with Isaiah Lorado Wilner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), and Unfolding Futures: Indigenous Ways of Knowing for the Twenty-First Century, with Philip J. Deloria, Bryan Brayboy, K. Tsinina Lomawaima, Mark Trahant, Loren Ghiglion, and Douglas Medin (Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2018). Indigenous Visions won the Biennial Book Prize for Best Edition, Anthology, or Essay Collection from the Modernist Studies Association in 2019. Blackhawk is also the author of The Shoshone, a history of the Shoshone peoples and culture aimed at young adults, published in 2000.

Blackhawk earned a bachelor’s degree in history, with honors, from McGill University (1992); a master’s in history from UCLA (1994); and a doctorate in history from the University of Washington (1999). He has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he won an outstanding mentor award, and currently teaches at Yale University, where he is the Howard R. Lamar Professor of History and is the faculty coordinator for the Yale Group for the Study of Native America. Blackhawk’s talk is titled “Resisting the Mythology of Indigenous Disappearance: Native Activists in the Early 20th-Century World.” His visit is co-sponsored by the Dean’s office and the Center for the Humanities. The following sentences from The Rediscovery of America might prompt us to think about what we might gain, or lose, if we do not pay attention to Blackhawk’s recalibration of American history: “If our schools and universities are to remain vital civic institutions, we must create richer and more truthful accounts of the American Republic’s origins, expansion, and current form. Studying and teaching America’s Indigenous truths reveal anew the varied meanings of Americ

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