Sixteenth Annual Southeast Indian Studies Conference
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.
Keynote Speaker
Devon Mihesuah is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and is the Cora Lee Beers Price Professor in the Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. 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. Her 18th book, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health, co-edited with Elizabeth Hoover, was published last fall. She is former Editor of the American Indian Quarterly and the University Nebraska Press book series, “Contemporary Indigenous Issues.” She oversees the American Indian Health and Diet Project at KU and the Facebook page, Indigenous Eating.
In her address, "The Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement in 2020," Devon Mihesuah will discuss the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States. Despite the growing enthusiasm for Indigenous food and initiatives designed to empower tribes across the country to control their own food production, she asks whether and how food sovereignty can actually be achieved and sustained.
Alesia J. Cummings
Administrative Support Associate
American Indian Studies
(910) 521-6266