News

Dr. Yolanda Lara Arauza, Department of American Multicultural Studies, will be making introductory remarks at the Latino Oral History Project Reception, celebrating the completion of two multi-year oral history projects in the Red River Valley: Latino Leaders of the Red River Valley and Building the Migrant Infrastructure in the Red River Valley. Arauza and her husband, Abner, conducted over 20 oral history interviews for the two projects. A reception will be held on Sunday, September 16, from 2:00–4:00 p.m. at the Hjemkomst Center, 202 1st Avenue North, in Moorhead. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Helen Klassen began her career at MSUM in the counseling center in 1989 and transferred to the American Multicultural Studies department in the late 1990s. Klassen was a leader in teaching and mentoring Native students. She was innovative and creative in her use of Anishinaabe cultural traditions in her teaching to engage students and enhance their understanding of course content. Klassen once stated that a great passion of hers was to examine the intersection between Native values, teaching and learning styles with those of the dominant culture to find a safe place within which learning can take place for my students. Read the rest of this entry →

Jamie Holding Eagle poses for a picture in front of one of the gardens on the Lutheran Social Services plot, East of Rasumssen college in Fargo. Holding Eagle volunteers at many gardens in the Fargo-Moorhead area, she enjoys being outdoors in a low tech environment, June 26, 2012 Jesse Trelstad / The Forum

MSUM alum encourages community to plant gardens.

By: Janelle Brandon, SheSays Contributor, INFORUM

FARGO – Dil Maya Khadka stands over a collection of 5-gallon buckets with a hose, filling them with water to nourish the newly planted Growing Together Lutheran Social Services Garden in south Fargo.

Maya Khadka, 23, of Fargo, is just one of the 40 New American families receiving food she helped plant and is now tending.

“My baby,” says Maya Khadka pointing to her swollen middle. “July 27.” Born in Bhutan, Maya Khadka speaks very little English. When asked what her favorite vegetable is to grow and eat, she answers simply, “Tomatoes.” Read the rest of this entry →

Organización Latina Americana invites you to attend the 16th Unity Conference, Thursday and Friday, April 19-20 at MSU Moorhead. The theme is “Charting New Directions: Nuevos Horizontes.” The Conference schedule and session descriptions are available online or in the CMU lower level during the Conference. Find out more online or contact Dr. Yolanda Arauza at 218.477.2027 or arauzala@mnstate.edu.

Main speaker Dr. Refugio Rochin is the former director of the Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science. Dr. Rochin was a professor of Sociology and Agricultural Economics and the founding director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives. Read the rest of this entry →

Monday, April 2 is the kickoff for Diversity Week, presented by the MSUM Student Senate Diversity Committee. Monday’s theme is Identities, Issues and Intersections and there will be two events held in the CMU. From 10:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. in CMU 205, there will be organizations tabling introducing students to different identities and issues. There will be tables from Women’s and Gender Studies, Hendrix Health Center, Gay Straight Alliance, Planned Parenthood, Women’s Center/CFO/Triota and Students Against Human Trafficking. Read the rest of this entry →

Two professors will visit MSUM this week and present lectures. The lectures are free and open to the public, and sponsored by the Comstock Fund.

Tuesday, March 27 Bridges 162 at 4:30 p.m. Professor Tom Sibley will present: Wasps and Wolves, Math and Models
What can mathematics tell us about biology? Dr. Sibley will illustrate a range of answers using models made by his students. Whether the biology concerns how wasps construct nests, how the DNR manages wolves or how the HIV virus builds resistance to drugs, a mathematical model can provide insight to biologists. Read the rest of this entry →

Please join us for an evening with Dr. Julie Sze for her lecture, “Defining Environmental Justice and Crossing Borders” Wednesday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at the MSUM Center for Business, Room 111, 721 11th St. S, Moorhead, 56563.

In her lecture, Dr. Sze will discuss the field of environmental justice studies as a border-crossing enterprise. These borders include research and outreach/engagement activities, and traditional divides between academia and community, race and environment, and the social sciences, humanities and sciences. Whether your interests lie in environmental, racial or social justice, this will be an evening you will not want to miss. Read the rest of this entry →

Kandace Creel Falcón’s, women’s and gender studies and American multicultural studies, chapter entitled, “Teaching with Blogs and Blogging While Teaching: Using Blogs to Expand Access to Feminist (Cyber)Spaces” has been published, March 2012. The chapter co-authored with her colleague from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Sara L. Puotinen, is part of the edited anthology, “Feminist Cyberspaces: Pedagogies in Transition.” Edited by Sharon Collingwood, Alvina E. Quintana, and Caroline J. Smith, the volume comes out of Cambridge Scholars Publishing and is now available.

Kandace Creel Falcón, women’s and gender studies and American multicultural studies, delivered a paper and digital story presentation entitled, “Mothers, Grandmothers, Aunts, and Sisters: Chicana Feminist Reflections on Midwestern Women’s Oral Histories” at the 2012 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Scholars (NACCS) March 14-17, 2012 in Chicago, IL.

The conference brings together scholars from across the country working on Chicana/o Studies. This year’s conference theme NACCS@40: Celebrating Scholarship and Activism – highlighted scholarship and activism in Chicana/o studies over the last 40 years. The conference had over 600 attendees and the most papers submitted for presentation in its 40-year history.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures,” and to celebrate, students in Women’s and Gender Studies will be hosting a panel in CMU 101 on Thursday, March 8 at 12 p.m.

The panel will discuss issues of women and education, locally and globally. Panelists include Dr. Andrew Conteh, Political Science, Dr. Kandace Creel Falcón, American Multicultural Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies, and Deepa Trivedi, Biosciences and Women’s and Gender Studies student.

Please come with any questions you have about women and education. Rice and beans, and beverages will be served!

MSUM faculty are invited to join UC Davis American Studies professor Julie Sze for an on-campus lunchtime faculty dialogue on Wednesday, March 28 from noon-1:30 p.m. The topic of this dialogue will be academic/community connections related to her environmental justice work with the 25 Stories from the Central Valley project.

From the project website, 25 STORIES FROM THE CENTRAL VALLEY uses photos, stories and theater to paint a vivid picture of the environmental toxins that “the other California” lives with every day. Women leaders give us a window into the little-known lives of people who are making this region safer for everyone. Their stories are shocking, sad, and inspiring. Above all, they will broaden your understanding of the Central Valley, community change, and the necessity for civic engagement.  Read the rest of this entry →

Most events are free and open to the public

Schedule of Events

Monday, November 7

9:00 AM: Opening Pipe Ceremony (Library Mall) – Delvin Rogers, Jr. Spiritual Helper and member of Three Affiliated Tribes

9:30 AM: American Indian Spirituality (CMU 203) – Delvin Rogers, Jr. Read the rest of this entry →

Phyllis May-Machunda, AMCS, presents on “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Veiled Tradition of African American Cheerleading” Wednesday, April 27 at 6 p.m. in the Center for Business 109.

Saturday, March 5 – 3 p.m. – Fargo Theater: MSUM Film Studies Professor Raymond
Rea’s screening of Northern Pains, the Story of the Fargo-Moorhead Derby Girls. Northern Pains is a short (30 min) documentary that follows Fargo-Moorhead’s own roller derby team, the FM Derby Girls. Read the rest of this entry →

Filmmaker Teresa Konechne presents her film, Woven from the Land: Women. Prairie. Culture, in Weld Hall’s Glasrud Auditorium at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 9th.

A panel discussion on land use, women’s experiences in rural culture, and life on the prairie follows the screening. Panelists include Anthony Adah, a faculty member in MSUM’s Film Studies Department, Kandace Creel Falcon, a faculty members in MSUM’s Women’s Studies and American Multicultural Studies Departments, and Rinita Dalan, a faculty member in MSUM’s Anthropology and Earth Sciences Department. Read the rest of this entry →

More about Off and Running

Off and Running is the story of Brooklyn teenager Avery, a track star with a bright future. She is the adopted African-American child of white Jewish lesbians. Her older brother is black and Puerto Rican, and her younger brother is Korean. Though it may not look typical, Avery’s household is like most American homes

— until Avery writes to her birth mother. The response throws her into crisis. She struggles over her “true” identity, the circumstances of her adoption and her estrangement from black culture. When it seems as if her life is unraveling, Avery decides to pick up the pieces and make sense of her identity, with inspiring results.

Film preview and details.

Kim Park Nelson, who teaches in the MSUM American Multicultural Studies Department, organized the screening and will be Avery’s official host. We’re excited for this unique opportunity to engage with Avery and her story and spend time thinking and talking about race and American identity in the 21st century, and would love to have you—and any friends, students, or colleagues you’d like to invite—in the room.

Read more.

A special screening of the film Off and Running will be held Thursday, February 17 at 7:30 p.m. in King Hall 110. Discussion will follow the screening with special guest Avery Klein-Cloud, Off and Running co-writer and star.

Off and Running is the story of Brooklyn teenager Avery, a track star with a bright future. She is the adopted African-American child of white Jewish lesbians. Her older brother is black and Puerto Rican, and her younger brother is Korean. Though it may not look typical, Avery’s household is like most American homes—until Avery writes to her birth mother. The response throws her into crisis. She struggles over her “true” identity, the circumstances of her adoption and her estrangement from black culture. When it seems as if her life is unraveling, Avery decides to pick up the pieces and make sense of her identity, with inspiring results.

Sponsored by MSUM departments of American Multicultural Studies, Film Studies and Women’s Studies with support from the Diversity Events Fund and Multicultural Affairs. Additional support from Concordia College Intercultural Affairs.

Please join us this semester for a wide variety of Honors Lectures.

January 27
7:30 p.m. • SL104
“The Case of the Female Orgasm at the Intersection of Science and Society”
Dr. Linda Fuselier, MSUM Biology/Women’s Studies Department Read the rest of this entry →

Dr. Kandace Creel Falcón, Women’s Studies/AMCS, will deliver a Women’s Studies colloquium on “Chicana Voices: Chicana (Digital) Storytelling and Oral History Practices” Friday, December 3 at 12 p.m. in MacLean 167.

She writes: “Tracing the lives of eight Midwestern Mexican American women, my research interrogates the role of stories and storytelling in familial relationships and community building. I engage with Chicana feminist understandings of identity through these Midwestern Chicanas’ stories of growing up in the Midwest (in the 60s and 70s) and their lives as women – while paying particular attention to the intersectional categories of gender, race, class and sexuality.

Bill Miller presents “The Red Road to Victory” Monday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. in Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium. Bill will give a brief review of his Mohican tribal history, an intimate look into his native culture, and will share three personal stories. Bill’s journey from victim to victory is charted and he illustrates the wisdom of “the twelve feathers of healing” to model his vision of transformation through reconciliation. Bill illustrates the relationship between majority and minority cultures, the ineffectual result of teaching tolerance and assimilation, and instead promotes a redemptive culture of understanding and peace. Read more.