CLRC News for 2008-2009
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May 11-13, 2008:
Discursive Practices: The formation of a Transnational Indigenous Poetics
The conference brought together scholars and writers from U.S., Canada, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru that engage and/or produce indigenous literary creations. The organizers hoped to dismiss the conventional idea that the indigenous experience needs mediation.
The conference was particularly important because it is one of the few occasions that brings together indigenous writers from the North and South. The format allowed for the establishment of an open and productive dialogue between writers of different ethnicities about issues fundamental to their intellectual and creative production.
The Conference had a “formal” academic aspect in which some participants were asked to present orally
a written paper for 20 minutes in panels/sessions, after which the audience could ask questions. The less formal aspect of our Conference was originated from the round tables that brought together participants in creative areas—poetry, fiction, essays, theater and other stage performances—and in very free form with less time limits enabling participants to offer their creative and intellectual experiences and ideas to other participants and the rest of the audience. Throughout the conference the participants could establish a deep trust, understanding, mutual respect, and, above all, an efficient level of linguistic communication in spite of lacking simultaneous translation services.
The conference had the participation of numerous professional women from the Americas who are engaged in indigenous literature:
Ana Patricia Martínez Huchim, Universidad de Oriente UNP, Valladolid, Yucatan, México
Ana Patricia Martínez Huchim is an Anthropologist specialized in Linguistics and Literature. She got her degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (University of Yucatan). She does research on Mayan oral traditions. Currently, she is a professor/researcher at la Universidad de Oriente, in Valladolid, Yucatán, M
éxico. She is also part of the team that is translating the Mexican Constitution to Maya t'aan.
Beth Piatote (Nez Perce/Ni:mi:pu:), University of California, Berkeley
Beth Piatote is assistant professor of Native American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include Native American literature, history, law and culture; Native American/Aboriginal literature and federal Indian law in the United States and Canada; American literature and cultural studies; Ni:mi:pu: (Nez Perce) language and literature.
Cecilia Tolley, University of California, Davis
Cecilia Tolley is an Associate Instructor of Native American Literature at UC Davis, where she is also working towards her doctorate in Native American Studies. She holds the Master of Divinity and Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies from Vanderbilt University.
Carolyn Dunn is an American Indian artist of Cherokee, Muskogee Creek, and Seminole descent on her father's side, and is Cajun, French Creole, and Tunica-Biloxi on her mother's. Primarily a poet and a playwright, Carolyn began telling and writing stories at a very young age, being exposed to storytelling traditions from all aspects of her very Southern and very Western background. Her work has been recognized by the Wordcraft Circle of Storytellers and Writers as Book of the Year for poetry (Outfoxing Coyote, 2002) as well as the Year's Best in 1999 for her short story "Salmon Creek Road Kill", Native American Music Awards (for the Mankillers cd Comin to Getcha) and the Humboldt Area Foundation. www.carolyndunn.com/
Dina Fachin, Native American Studies, UC Davis
Dina Fachin is a Ph.D candidate in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. She iscurrently working on her dissertation on self-representation of indigenous people from Oaxaca, Mexicoinliterature and video making.
Graciela Huinao (Mapuche), Chile
Inés Hernández-Avila (Nez Perce/Nimipu), University of California, Davis
Inés Hernández-Avila is Director of the Chicana/Latina Research Center and Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis. She is a poet and cultural worker as well as a scholar. Dr. Hernandez-Avila's research/publication areas are Native American women's literature (particularly poetry and performance), contemporary indigenous literature of Mexico, Native American religious traditions, Native American and Chicana cultural studies, Native American and Chicana feminisms, early 20th century Texas-Mexican women’s literature. http://clrc.ucdavis.edu/director.htm
Isabel Juárez Espinoza (Tzeltal Maya), Mexico
Isabel Juarez Espinosa, is one of the founders of Fomma, Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya (Mayan Women's Strength, or Fortress), a theater troupe and community center that has attracted worldwide attention. FOMMA is based in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, and Juarez Espinosa is one of Mexico’s first female Indian playwrights.
Jazmin Yamile Noh Montero, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, México
Jazmin Noh Montero is a student of Anthropology at the University of Yucatán (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán). She is currently at the eighth quarter of her degree in Latin-American Literature. Furthermore, she is the coordinator of a children’s reading club of CONACULTA (Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes)
Luz María Lepe, Facultad de Psicología, UMSNH, Mexico.
Luz María Lepe is a Psychology professor at the UMSNH. She got her Ph.D in Literature and Comparative Literature from la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. She is a member of Mexico's Nationwide Researchers system. In 2004, she won the Andrés Bello award for her research "Cantos de Mujeres en el Amazonas". She was the coordinator of the book: Comunicación desde la periferia: tradiciones orales frente a la globalización publicado por Anthropos, en 2006.
Malea Powell (Indiana Miami, Eastern Shawnee), Michigan State University
Malea Powell is a mixed-blood of Indiana Miami, Eastern Shawnee, and Euroamerican ancestry. She is the Director of Graduate Studies in Rhetoric & Writing and an Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and American Culture at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on examining the rhetorics of survivance used by 19th century American Indian intellectuals, and has published essays in CCCC, Paradoxa, Race, Rhetoric & Composition, AltDis, and other essay collections. http://www.msu.edu/~powell37
María Chavarría, University of Saint Thomas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
Marcie Rendon (White Earth Anishinabe Nation), US
Marcie Rendon She is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation. She is a playwright, poet, and freelance writer. A former recipient of the Loft’s Inroads Writers of Color Award for Native Americans she studied poetry under Anishinabe author Jim Northrup. She was a l998/99 recipient of the St. Paul Company’s LIN (Leadership In Neighborhoods) Grant to "create a viable Native presence in the Twin Cities theater community. http://hometown.aol.com/MRendon703
Norma Klahn, University of California, Santa Cruz
Renya Ramirez (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska), University of California, Santa Cruz
Renya Ramirez is an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. Her book, Native Hubs: Culture, Community, and Belonging in Silicon Valley and Beyond (Duke UP, 2007), works to support communication between U.S. and Mexican Indigenous peoples, the federally acknowledged and nonacknowledged, mixed and full bloods, and Indigenous youth and adults. Her interests include Native feminisms, violence 
against Native women, diaspora, transnationalism, and gender and cultural citizenship.
Roberta Hill (Oneida Nation), University of Wisconsin, Madison
Roberta Hill, formerly Hill Whiteman, is an enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and a poet, fiction writer and scholar. She grew up in Oneida and Green Bay, Wisconsin, and earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. Her two collections of poetry are Star Quilt (Holy Cow! Press, [1984] 2001) and Philadelphia Flowers (Holy Cow! Press, 1996).
Rosenda Pérez, Guatemala
She is a member of the Q’anjob’al community in Guatemala; where she works as a linguist and teacher of elementary and middle school. She was president of the Academy of Mayan languages of the community of Q’anjob’al (Academia de Lenguas Mayas de la Comunidad Linguistia de Q’anjob’al). She works with different organizations for women rights.
Roxana Miranda Rupailaf, Universidad Austral, Chile
Roxana Miranda Rupailaf is a Spanish and Communications professor in the University de Los Lagos, Osorno. In 2006 she was awarded the scholarship for writers from El Consejo Nacional del Libro y la Lectura (Book National Council). Her poems has been included in the numerous anthologies such as the Epu mari ülkantufe ta fachantü/20 poetas mapuches contemporáneos, Canto a un prisionero. 
Sylvia Escárcega, De Paul University, Chicago
Sylvia Escárcega is co-editor in the book La Ruta Mixteca: el impacto etnopolítico de la migración transnacional en los pueblos indígenas de México (2004). Her research currently focuses on indigenous migrant’s and indigenous women’s empowerment in the context of the global indigenous movement. At present, she is assistant professor at DePaul University (Chicago) and will be joining CIESAS Pacífico in Oaxaca as this July.
See also: http://irca.ucdavis.edu/discursive-practices/en/
The Discursive Practices conference was sponsored by:
* UC Campus Co-sponsors: Chicana/Latina Research Center, Department of Native American Studies, Indigenous Research Center of the Americas (NAS), Rumsey Rancheria Endowed Chair in California Indian Studies, Hemispheric Institute of the Americas, Davis Humanities Institute, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The Indigenous Research Cluster (Cultural Studies Center, UCSC)and the American Cultures and Politics (APCA) Research Cluster
*System wide Co-Sponsors: UC Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), University of California, Irvine; University of California Office of the President and the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching
*External Co-Sponsor: Ford Foundation, Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom Program