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2018 Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. Lecture: An Evening With Gerald Vizenor

Gerald Vizenor
Friday, March 23, 2018
6:30-9:00 PM
Museum Apse Museum of Art Map
Native American Studies at the University of Michigan presents the 2018 Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. Lecture: An Evening With Gerald Vizenor

BETRAYAL AND IRONY: Native American Survivance and the Subversion of Ethnology

Gerald Vizenor is Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a citizen of the White Earth Nation in Minnesota, and has published more than thirty books including novels, literary criticism, cultural studies, and poetry. Blue Ravens, an historical novel, and Treaty Shirts are his most recent publications. Vizenor has received many awards including the American Book Award for Griever: An American Monkey King in China, the Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award, and the Lifetime Literary Achievement Award from the Native Writer’s Circle of the Americas. Prior to his long career as an intellectual and academic, he enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces, during which he was stationed in Japan; directed the American Indian Employment and Guidance Center in Minneapolis; and served as a journalist for the Minneapolis Tribune, where he reported critically about the activities of the American Indian Movement.

This event is free and open to the public. There will be a catered reception to follow the lecture. Literati bookstore will be selling Vizenor's books starting at 6PM and again after the lecture.

The Berkhofer Lecture series (named for a former U-M professor and founder of the field of Native American studies) was established in 2014 by an alumni gift from the Dan and Carmen Brenner family of Seattle, Washington. In close consultation with the Brenners, Native American Studies decided to create a public lecture series featuring prominent, marquee speakers who would draw audiences from different communities (faculty and students, Ann Arbor and Detroit, and Michigan tribal communities as well as writers and readers of all persuasions). Native American students at U-M have consistently expressed their desire to make Native Americans more visible both on campus and off, and we believe that this lecture takes a meaningful step in that direction. Additionally, because of the statewide publicity it generates, we think it is already becoming another recruitment incentive for Native American students. It goes without saying that the speakers we are inviting provide tremendous value to the mission and work of Native American Studies at U-M.
Building: Museum of Art
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: Alumni, Anthropology, Books, Dinner, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Food, Free, Graduate Students, History, Lecture, Native American, UMMA, Undergraduate Students
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Native American Studies, Comparative Literature, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Women's and Gender Studies Department, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, Department of American Culture, Department of Anthropology, Department of English Language and Literature

The Thursday Series is the core of the institute's scholarly program, hosting distinguished guests who examine methodological, analytical, and theoretical issues in the field of history. 

The Friday Series consists mostly of panel-style workshops highlighting U-M graduate students. On occasion, events may include lectures, seminars, or other programs presented by visiting scholars.

The insitute also hosts other historical programming, including lectures, film screenings, author appearances, and similar events aimed at a broader public audience.