Associate professor David Treuer is interviewed by American Public Media's Krista Tippett about his recent project, with brother Anton Treuer, compiling the first practical grammar of the Ojibwe language. Professor Treuer describes an unfolding experience of how language forms what makes us human. Some memories and realities, he has found, can only be carried forward in time by Ojibwe. The radio show, part of the series Speaking of Faith, which broadcast in the Twin Cities Sunday, June 22, on KNOW 91.1 FM is now available on-line.
June 2008 Archives
PhD candidate Mitch Ogden will defend his dissertation "Refugee Utopias: (Re)Theorizing Refugeeism through the Cultural Production of the Hmong Diaspora" at 10 am June 26, 2008, in Lind 207A. Ogden examines how Hmong magnetic media (audio and video cassettes) shape a novel concept of homeland, how the many competing Hmong writing systems challenge and uphold cultural and political ideologies, and how a burgeoning literary movement reflects the energy of a dynamic global diaspora. Throughout, he proposes that the persistent cultural image of refugee-as-perpetual-victim be updated, expanded, and discarded in favor of a view that acknowledges the vibrant, creative force of cultural production that animates contemporary refugee communities.
