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).
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
Gibbs College of Architecture Regional + City Planning Professor of Practice Vanessa Morrison and Associate Professor of Architecture Deborah Richards’ Open Design Collective received top honors at the inaugural BlackSpace Urbanist Collective Studio KIN Pitch Night Competition, held last month in Brooklyn, New York City.
