Presenters to describe course on Ojibwe culture and related field experience

** Note: This course is available to students at all campuses and University Park. **

Students are invited to learn more about the spring 2014 course  “Exploring Indigenous Ways of Knowing in a North American Context” and related field experience in northern Minnesota (CED497B and 497C), on Friday, September 27, 2013, from noon to 1:30 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library. The presentation can also be viewed live online. The course is available to students at the campuses as well as at University Park.

Instructors Dr. Bruce Martin, Danna Jayne Seballos and Nonny Scholtzhauer will talk about the course and past students will share how the course has affected their worldviews and values.

Martin has led Penn State seminars in Ojibwe country for 10 years and has an intimate understanding of the people and the culture, having grown up in the northernmost point of the Red Lake Nation on Lake of the Woods, Angle Inlet, in Minnesota. Co-presenter Seballos is assistant director of the Penn State World in Conversation Project and Schlotzhauer is social sciences librarian and subject specialist for anthropology and psychology.

CED 497B is a 2.5 credit course designed to prepare students for an intensive engagement with Ojibwe culture. Students will meet weekly face-to-face or on Skype to discuss assigned readings. A field trip will be held in March to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania to highlight the process of assimilation that was imposed upon American Indian youth. Students will be introduced to library resources in indigenous knowledge, including primary source materials on Native American culture and history.

The variable credit (0.5-3.0) CED 497C field experience offers intensive cultural engagement with Ojibwe communities. After traveling by van on the route taken by the Ojibwe to reach the lakes of Minnesota, students will learn about Ojibwe culture and ways of knowing from tribal elders, leaders and those living on the reservations. They will take an active part in celebrations and ceremonies that are not generally open to visitors and spend time in the homes of families on the closed Red Lake Reservation. Students will have the opportunity to reflect orally and in writing on their experiences.

If you anticipate needing any kind of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided please contact Helen Sheehy at hms2@psu.edu or 814-863-1347, in advance of your visit. For more information, please visit icik.psu.edu.

Click here to download a flyer of the event: IndigenousWaysofKnowing