Malea Powell, the national chair of the Conference on College Composition & Communication and a professor at Michigan State University, will discuss American Indian rhetorics at Nebraska Wesleyan University’s annual Holder Lecture on April 25.
Powell’s lecture, “Rhetorical Powwows: Making American Indian Rhetorics,” begins at 3:30 p.m. in Callen Conference Center, located on the lower level of the Smith-Curtis Administration Building.
Powell spent five years as director of the Rhetoric and Writing Graduate Program at MSU, seven years as editor of SAIL: Studies in American Indian Literatures and two years as associate national director of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers.
Powell’s current work focuses on American Indian material rhetorics and the degree to which these everyday arts are related to written rhetorical traditions. Powell is a mixed-blood of Indiana Miami, Eastern Shawnee, and Euroamerican ancestry. She grew up on a small farm in north-central Indiana just outside of Swayzee, surrounded by family and history.
Powell says her main goal as a scholar, teacher and mentor is to change the way that knowledge by, about, and for American Indians is produced, distributed, taught, and received.
Her lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
The Kenneth R. Holder Lecture was established by members of the Department of English in memory of Dr. Kenneth R. Holder, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of English. The lecture features a scholar in the field of language, English education or composition theory.