Panel Today: Examining the University of Arkansas' Indigenous Past and Reimagining Its Future

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, join Native faculty, students and guests for a panel discussion on the history and future of the university's engagement with Indigenous peoples and nations in the region. 

Sean Teuton (Cherokee Nation), a professor of English and director of Indigenous Studies at the U of A; and Summer Wilkie (Cherokee Nation), the Native American student liaison for the Multicultural Center, along with Jean Dennison (Osage Nation) will address the Indigenous roots of Northwest Arkansas and the university and how the U of A can engage with and empower Indigenous peoples through acknowledgement, collaboration, representation and space.

Dennison is co-director of the Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies and an associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington. Her book Colonial Entanglement: Constituting a Twenty-First-Century Osage Nation (UNC Press 2012) speaks directly to national revitalization, one of the most pressing issues facing American Indians today. She has also published widely, including pieces in Visual Anthropology, PoLAR, American Indian Quarterly, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, American Ethnologist, and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal. Dennison's current research uses grounded ethnographic methods to understand the most pressing issues facing the Osage Nation government today. The primary goal of her academic endeavor is to explore how Indigenous peoples negotiate and contest the ongoing settler colonial process in areas such as citizenship, governance, and sovereignty.

The virtual event will occur 4-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19, via Zoom.

Event Link.