A top scholar on the role of Native American images and culture in creating a national identity — think Boston Tea Party and team mascots — will visit the UO this month to give a talk on Indians and popular culture.
Philip J. Deloria, professor and associate dean for undergraduate education at the University of Michigan, will discuss “American Indians in the American Popular Imagination” Wednesday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom. The talk is free and open to the public.
Deloria is the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Professor of American Culture and History at Michigan, with appointments to both the history and American culture departments. His research interests include the ways Indian culture is represented in American society at large and how it has been used, or ignored, in historical perspectives.
In his talk, Deloria said he will look at the “curious and painful dynamics” surrounding Native American visibility in popular culture, drawing on books such as "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Hiawatha" and cultural touchstones such as Cher, "The Lone Ranger" and the movie "Avatar." He also will examine the use of Indian names and images in sports and commerce.
Deloria contrasts that cultural prominence with the near absence of Native American views in discussions of social, economic and political issues. But he argues that Native peoples have been deeply engaged with the forces of modernization over the past 120 years.
Deloria is the author of "Playing Indian and Indians in Unexpected Places." He is also the coeditor of "The Blackwell Companion to American Indian History" and "C.G. Jung and the Sioux Traditions: Dreams, Visions, Nature, and the Primitive" by his father, Vine Deloria Jr.
He has served as president of the American Studies Association, a council member of the Organization of American Historians and a trustee of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
The lecture is sponsored by the Alpha of Oregon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In addition to the public lecture, Deloria will take part in several chapter events and visit undergraduate classes in English, history and ethnic studies.
Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. The University of Oregon has the only Phi Beta Kappa chapter among Oregon’s public universities.