News & EventsToggle Section Navigation

You are here

Home / News & Events

News & Press

Vicente M. Diaz

Where Islands Move
Vincente Diaz, professor of American Indian studies, is originally from Guam, and was drawn to the University of Minnesota partly because of the region’s canoe culture. “The more you learn about voyaging, the more you realize that truth and knowledge are just conventions of certain peoples,” Diaz says.
Photo of Juliana Hu Pegues

Alaska and Settler Feminism
Juliana Hu Pegues received the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship for her research into the history of Asian immigrants and Alaska Natives. Her work seeks to understand the complex history of manifest destiny and inform the greater public about how settler colonialism shapes modern America.
Cones on a jingle dress

The Jingle Dress
The jingle dress dance is a spiritual healing practice dating back to 1918. Guided by the research efforts of Brenda Child—professor and current chair of the Department of American Studies—an exhibit featuring the evolution of the dress will launch in April 2019. How did this tradition emerge from a story, a dream, and the worst pandemic that the modern world has seen?
Woman wearing "Day of the Dead" make-up

Dia de los Muertos: An Indigenous celebration
Gabriela Spears-Rico and Jessica Lopez Lyman discuss Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, which comes from the Aztec celebration of loved ones who’ve walked on. It’s now a Mexican holiday with customs and traditions that are catching on in the US—but the American version is often more about sugar skull imagery and less about the original intent. What is the holiday is really about and how do you avoid cultural appropriation?

Pages