Dear Geography faculty, staff, and student colleagues,

 

I am excited to let you know of the upcoming campus visit of Melanie Yazzie, Navaho artist and University of Colorado Professor of Art. Her visit is funded by the Haines-Morris Endowment in the UTK College of Arts and Sciences, the UTK School of Art and the Betsey Worden Endowment.

 

Our Department of Geography wrote in strong support of the proposal that brings Professor Yazzie to UTK. Her presence on campus provides us a female indigenous perspective on community, home, nature, and mapping.  Professor Yazzie will engage in a week-long collaboration with students in intermediate and advanced printmaking on the topic of mapping and land use. Topics related to pre-colonial settlements, including Cherokee and Woodlands peoples in East Tennessee will be a central component of the project.  

 

Professor Yazzie’s UTK visit will also include a public exhibition of her work in the Printmaking Showcase Gallery (in the Art & Architecture Building) from Sept. 1 to Oct. 30, 2021. We will have the treat of seeing her widely acclaimed “Mapping Home / Collecting Truths: Works by Indigenous and International Artists.” Professor Yazzie organized the production of original artworks by 35 indigenous and international artists, inviting these artists to express ideas of homeland and its intersection with the environment, climate, or other influences. This exhibit resonates with many of our program’s themes, enriches our understanding of diverse perspectives of place, and expands what counts as a map and the social work that maps do. I invite you to take advantage of the opportunity to see and learn from this important exhibition.

 

Finally,  I invite you to attend a public lecture to be given by Professor Yazzie on Sept. 23 at 7:30pm at the McCarty Auditorium of the Art and Architecture Building (room 109)--see attached poster.

 

Professor Yazzie’s exhibition and public lecture strongly compliments a number of our currently offered courses (e.g., human geography, world geography, geographies of home, Appalachia) and possibly courses such as mapping/geo-visualization, people and environment, sustainability, and climate and human response.

 

Thanks for your time,

DA

 

Derek H. Alderman, PhD

He / Him / His

Professor of Geography

Department of Geography, University of Tennessee

Voice: (865) 974-0406

Founder, Tourism RESET

Past President, American Association of Geographers (2017-18)

Email: [log in to unmask], Twitter: @MLKStreet