Mindy Morgan, Ph.D. Indiana University, 2001
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology Affiliated Faculty, American Indian Studies
Acting Director, American Indian Studies

Michigan State University
330 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA
Phone: 517-353-6723
Fax: 517-432-2363
morgan37@msu.edu

DR. MORGAN's research centers on how indigenous communities both view and use language as a symbol of cultural persistence and tribal identity within the United States. This research falls into two main concentrations: ethnohistorical study regarding community beliefs and literacy practices in the early twentieth century, and ethnographic research within contemporary indigenous language programs.  Her research is concerned not only with the connections between language use and identity formation, but also the impact of federal policy on indigenous language maintenance and transmission.

In particular, she is interested in how individuals perceive the relative use and limits of indigenous language literacy. This work emerged from her experience as the curriculum coordinator for a collaborative Nakoda language project at Fort Belknap College, Montana. Her book manuscript, “’The Bearer of this Letter’: Language Ideologies and Literacy Practices among the Fort Belknap Communities,” which is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press, examines how literacy functioned as both a cultural practice and cultural symbol for the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre communities of Fort Belknap reservation during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This led her to also investigate tribal members’ participation in the Federal Writers’ Project in the late 1930s and early 1940s throughout Montana.  

In the fall of 2003, Dr. Morgan began a new research project regarding Ojibwe language maintenance and revitalization programs.  This work is connected to her previous experience with indigenous language programs at Fort Belknap Tribal College, and reflects her interest in how current indigenous language programs are linked to larger ideas of tribal identity and cultural persistence.

A few recent publications include:

forthcoming	“’The Bearer of this Letter’: Language Ideologies and Literacy Practices within the Fort Belknap Community” (book manuscript) University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Contract Awarded August 2007 (anticipated publication Fall 2008)
forthcoming	“‘This Piece of Authentic Work that Many a Novice has Failed to Get’: Critiquing Anthropological Knowledge in the Montana Writers’ Project” Histories of Anthropology volume 4 (anticipated Fall 2008).
forthcoming	Commentary in Indigenous Educational Models for Contemporary Practice:  In Our Mothers Voice II, Maenette Benham, ed. Routledge; Fall 2008
2005	“Redefining the Ojibwe Classroom: Indigenous Language Programs within Large Research Universities” Theme Issue: Indigenous Epistemologies and Education Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Volume 36, number 1 (Spring)
2005	“Constructions and Contestations of the Authoritative Voice: Native American Communities and the Federal Writers’ Project, 1935-41” American Indian Quarterly, Volume 29, numbers 1 & 2 (Winter/Spring)