OU Gibbs College is pleased to announce that Chadwick Allen is invited to give a public lecture in the upcoming fall semester, co-sponsored by OU Departments of English, Film & Media Studies, Geography and Native American Studies. Chadwick Allen serves as the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement at the University of Washington Seattle (UW), where he is also a Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of American Indian Studies. He has published numerous books and has conducted interdisciplinary work on Indigenous earthworks – a study of cultural and political revitalization through the built environment.
For his lecture, Professor Allen will give a brief overview of his book, Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) and discuss examples of how Indigenous nations in Oklahoma are re-engaging and reimagining ancient traditions of building large-scale earthworks. Allen will explore how these new mounds occupy space, organize relations and create meaning for local tribal citizens and the descendants of mound-building peoples in the post-removal era. The lecture will take place on Monday, November 13 from 4 – 5 p.m. in Nielsen Hall, room 170.
Allen is also a former editor of the journal Studies in American Indian Literatures and a past president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). His books include Blood Narrative: Indigenous Identity in American Indian and Maori Literary and Activist Texts and Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies.
For more information, contact Joanna Hearne (jhearne@ou.edu) or Chris Morrey (chris.morrey@ou.edu).
Robert L. Wesley, a pioneering architect and beloved mentor, has died at age 88. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Wesley joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became the firm's first Black partner in 1984. Throughout his career, he contributed to significant architectural projects while maintaining a strong commitment to civic engagement and professional mentorship.
The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to celebrate a series of recent accomplishments by Dr. Jim Collard, Professor of Practice in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design, whose work continues to shape conversations around Indigenous economic development nationally and internationally.
University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture Dean Hans E. [PA1.1]Butzer returned to one of his most significant works on December 15, joining survivors and past and present board members for the groundbreaking of a $15.8 million expansion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
