Debbie Reese is the featured speaker in the fall 2016 Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community. Reese will present “Some Truths, but Lots of Lies: Indigenous Peoples in Children’s Literature.” The event takes place on Thursday, October 20 at 7 p.m. at Heard Museum, Steele Auditorium. The lecture is free of charge and open to the public.
Debbie Reese is a scholar, critic, and publisher of the blog American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL). She was a professor in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Reese was born at the Indian Hospital in Santa Fe and grew up on the Nambé Pueblo reservation, learning tribal dances and ceremonies from family members and elders. She earned a teaching degree from the University of New Mexico and taught elementary school in Albuquerque before moving to Oklahoma to work on a Master’s degree in school administration.
Later, while completing her doctorate in education at the University of Illinois In the early 1990s, Reese worked alongside Native students and allies to establish a Native American House at the university. Soon after that, she helped launch an American Indian Studies program there.
Reese has written for publications such as Horn Book Magazine, School Library Journal, and Language Arts, the latter published by the National Council for Teachers of English. She is regularly invited to give lectures and workshops around the U.S. and has recently begun using technology to work with libraries and colleagues in Canada.
For more information please visit the Facebook event or the event website.
