Press Release: WVU authors to explore emotional complexities of Amer... http://media-newswire.com/printer_friendly_1064341.html
WVU authors to explore emotional complexities of American
Indian women
Date: 2008-04-22
You are viewing a printer friendly version. If you want to view the original release please click the link below:
Original Article: http://media-newswire.com/release_1064341.html
Distributed by: Media-Newswire.com
West Virginia University’s Native American Studies Program is hosting a Sycamore Circle discussion featuring two of its
faculty authors, Cari Carpenter and Carol Markstrom, who will discuss their recently published books on the emotional
character of American Indian women.
Indian Country Training Native American Dating
Classes, Conferences and Consulting for E-Snag.com for all Tribes Native American
Tribes and Tribal Organizations Tribal Dating Site!
(Media-Newswire.com) - West Virginia University’s Native American Studies Program is hosting a Sycamore Circle
discussion featuring two of its faculty authors, Cari Carpenter and Carol Markstrom, who will discuss their recently
published books on the emotional character of American Indian women.
The event will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday (April 24) in the Robinson Reading Room at WVU’s Downtown Campus Library.
It is free and open to the public.
“We want to celebrate the recent accomplishments of these two outstanding faculty,” said Bonnie Brown, NAS
coordinator. “Their new books are a valuable resource for Native American Studies.”
Carpenter’s book, “Seeing Red: Anger, Sentimentality, and American Indians,” is the first of its kind to examine
expressions of women’s anger as a potential force for social change through the poetry and prose of three early
American Indian writers.
She notes that the first published indigenous women writers were met with stereotypes of “savage” rage and argues that
while anger is a neglected element of a broad range of sentimental texts, it should be recognized as a particularly
significant subject in early literature of American Indian women.
Carpenter is an assistant professor of English, a core member of the Native American Studies Committee and a
University affiliate of the WVU Center for Women’s Studies. She specializes in 19th century women writers, American
Indian literature, gender studies and the emotion theory.
In addition to her book, she has published numerous articles on early American Indian women writers and is currently
editing a collection of writings by Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president. She received her master’s
degree in English in 1998 and her doctoral degree in English and women’s studies from the University of Michigan in
2002. Before joining WVU, she worked as a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Kalamazoo College.
Markstrom’s book, “Empowerment of North American Indian Girls: Ritual Expressions at Puberty,” examines ceremonies
for American Indian girls past and present, featuring an in-depth look at American Indian ideas about human
development and puberty with special attention to four communities: Apache, Navajo, Lakota and Ojibwa.
Markstrom specializes in American Indian history, beliefs, ritual practices and roles and human development. She is
particularly interested in identity formation, ego strength and structured activity involvement in adolescence. She reviews
indigenous, historical and anthropological literatures and provides descriptive accounts of North American Indian
coming-of-age rituals.
Markstrom, a professor in the Department of Technology, Learning and Culture in the College of Human Resources and
Education at WVU, coordinates the undergraduate and graduate programs in child development and family studies and
1 of 2 4/23/2008 1:07 PM
Press Release: WVU authors to explore emotional complexities of Amer... http://media-newswire.com/printer_friendly_1064341.html
is also a core member of the Native American Studies Program.
Her interests in American Indians extends back to her childhood and her work with Ojibwe and Dakota Sioux families in
Minnesota and South Dakota. She received her bachelor’s degree in family relationships from the University of
Minnesota in 1981, her master’s in child development and family relations from North Dakota State University in 1985
and her doctorate in developmental psychology from Utah State University in 1988. She has taught at the
Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Tribal College in South Dakota and joined the WVU faculty in 1993.
Additionally, Markstrom lived on the Navajo Nation in 1999 and the San Carlos Apache Nation in 2007 in Arizona, where
she served as a consultant and researcher while on professional development leave from WVU.
The Native American Studies Program is part of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. For more information, contact
Brown at 304-293-4626 or Bonnie.Brown@mail.wvu.edu.
The Sycamore Circle series was developed to give students, faculty and community members an informal means to
learn more about American Indian subjects.
4/21/08
Contacts:
Rebecca Herod
Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Office: (304) 293-7405, ext. 5251
2 of 2 4/23/2008 1:07 PM