The Newberry is pleased to welcome Dr. Julie Pelletier as Acting Director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. Dr. Pelletier's appointment begins October 2, 2017, and continues through August 15, 2018.
The McNickle Center's current director, Dr. Patricia Marroquin Norby, is on leave to complete her book, entitled Water, Bones, and Bombs: Three Artists and the Fight for Northern New Mexico, under contract with the University of Nebraska Press.
Dr. Pelletier is Associate Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Winnipeg and was most recently Acting Executive Director of the school's Global College, which fosters global citizenship and engagement in human rights. She is a descendant of the Wesget Sipu Fish River Tribe of northern Maine. She earned her PhD and MA in cultural anthropology at Michigan State University, where she became the school's first graduate student to have her doctoral research funded by a tribe, the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Dr. Pelletier’s research interests include decolonization, identity issues, representation, and ritualization. Most recently, her research has focused on American Indian casino gaming as site of contestation.
As Acting Director of the McNickle Center at the Newberry, Dr. Pelletier will oversee educational programming, support for researchers, and the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies as she works with library staff and external stakeholders to continue the center's success in fostering connections among Indigenous scholars, communities, and the Newberry's collections.