PEMBROKE — The American Indian Studies Department at UNC Pembroke will host the 16th annual Southeast Indian Studies Conference March 18-19.
The event will take place virtually from 1-6 p.m. each day. The conference will showcase presentations by scholars and community members on topics including Indigenous medical perspectives, education, history, food sovereignty and other subjects involving Southeast Native peoples.
Admission is free and open to the public; however, registration is required to receive a Zoom link. To register, visit uncp.edu/form/southeast-indian-studies-confere
“We were looking forward to last year’s conference (March 2020), which was set to take place only weeks before the pandemic forced all the university activities to online only,” Dr. Jane Haladay, professor in the American Indian Studies Department.
“This year, we are thrilled to be able to have most of the presenters who were scheduled to participate in 2020 eager to join us again in 2021. And though we’ll miss visiting with folks in person, being virtual has resulted in our being able to share this wonderful group of presenters with a much broader audience, including people in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and even the United Kingdom,” Haladay continued.
The keynote speaker for this year’s conference is Dr. Devon Mihesuah, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Cora Lee Beers Price Professor in the Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. In her address, “The Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement in 2021,” Dr. Mihesuah will discuss the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States.
A historian by training, she is the author of numerous award-winning non-fiction and fiction books, including “Ned Christie”; “Choctaw Crime and Punishment: 1884-1907”; “American Indigenous Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism;” and “Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness.”
The purpose of the Southeast Indian Studies Conference is to provide a forum for discussion of the culture, history, art, health and contemporary issues of Native Americans in the Southeast. The conference serves as a critical venue for scholars, students and all persons interested in American Indian Studies in the region.
The conference is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Academic Affairs, the Museum of the Southeast American Indian and the Southeast American Indian Studies Program.
Attendees in need of an accommodation to access the program or program materials should contact Dr. Mary Ann Jacobs at mary.jacobs@uncp.edu no later than five business days prior to the program. However, a good faith effort will be made for any request made less than five days in advance.
A full schedule and a registration link to the conference can be found at uncp.edu/ais/sisc. For more information, contact Jacobs at mary.jacobs@uncp.edu or the Department of American Indian Studies at ais@uncp.edu or 910-521-6266.
