Academic Activities of Gerald Vizenor

Academic Appointments

Professor, Ethnic Studies Department,
University of California, Berkeley

Professor of English, University of Oklahoma
David Burr Chair of Letters, academic year 1990-1991.

Acting Provost, Kresge College
University of California, Santa Cruz

Professor, Literature and American Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz

Visiting professor, English Department,
Tianjin University, People's Republic of China,
fall semester, 1983.

Professor, American Studies Program,
University of Minnesota

James J. Hill Visiting Professor,
University of Minnesota, 1977.

Awards and Special Appointments

Teachers Hall of Fame,
nomined and named by the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, 1995.

Faculty Research Grant for 1989,
University of California, Santa Cruz,
and a similar faculty research grant at the University of Minnesota, 1982.

Resident Scholar, School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico,
academic year, 1985-1986, research on "trickster discourse" in Native American Indian literature,

Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow,
grant for graduate study at Harvard University, 1974.

Editorial and Professional Associations

Series Editor, American Indian Literature and Critical Studies, University of Oklahoma Press. Initiated the series seven years ago and since then more than twenty-five books have been published in the series.

Editorial Board, North American Indian Prose Award, University of Nebraska. Five titles have been published in this annual series.

Editorial Board, American Indian Lives, an autobiography series, University of Nebraska Press. Thirteen titles have been published in this series.

Editorial Board, The Smithsonian Series of Studies in Native American Literatures, Smithsonian Institution Press.

Editorial Avisory Board, ZAA, Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, A Quarterly of Language, Literature and Culture, Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen, Germany.

Advisory Council, D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, The Newberry Library in Chicago.

Past series advisor for "Indian America," a documentary film series about tribal histories and cultures, Media Resource Associates, Washington, D.C.

Founder and chairman, Native American Literature Prize, University of California, Santa Cruz, an annual award. Restructured as the Native American International Prize in Literature, an association with World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma.

Conferences and Seminars Organized

Comparative Law and Literature, initiated a special graduate seminar with Justice Gary Strankman, First Distict Court of Appeals, Richard Hutson, Karen Beistman, Kathleen Moran, and Gerald Vizenor. The main lecturer was Justice Strankman. Spring Semester 1994.

Savages and Civilization: Jews and Indians, initiated this graduate seminar with Professor Daniel Boyarin, sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, Graduate Interdepartmental Research Seminar. Spring Semester 1996.

Initiated the conference, Narrative Chance: New Interpretations and Discourse on Native American Indian Literatures, two days, seven speakers, responses and discussions, University of California, Santa Cruz, March 1989.

Initiated special lectures on the Translation of Native American Literatures by Alexandr Vaschenko, Gorky Institute of World Literature, Soviet Union, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, April 1989.

Initiated a special seminar on The Maori: Devaluations of Power to Tribal Organizations with Ann Sullivan, lecturer at Waikato University, New Zealand; and a second seminar on Mixedbloods: Racial Margins or New Cultural Identities with Professor Terry Wilson, University of California, Berkeley, at Kresge College, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1990.

Initiated a special seminar on Boundaries and Margins in Native American Literature with Professor Elaine Jahner, Dartmouth College, and Professor Louis Owens, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Academic Committees

Three faculty search committees, Ethnic Studies Department, 1994, 1995.

Faculty Personnel Committee, Board of Studies in Literature, 1988-1989, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Chairman, Chancellor's Status of Minorities Committee, 1988-1990, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Chairman, Campus Regulations Committee, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1990.

Past member, Cultural Studies Steering Committee; Task Force on Racial Harrassment; Task Force on Ethnic Studies; Creative Writing Search Committee; University of California, Santa Cruz.

Other Academic Activities

Director of the American Studies Institute, a three-week summer session of one-unit courses on the Americas, 1995, 1996, and 1997.

Co-director with Richard Hutson of the American Studies Program in the Division of Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies, two academic years, 1993 to 1995.

Contest reader, The Charles and Mildred Nilon Minority Fiction Award, 1989; Review reader for the University of Minnesota Press.

Initiated a special library fund to acquire titles in Native American literature, McHenry Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Proposed and established the annual Native American Literature Prize at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The award, sustained by Benjamin Porter College and the Humanities Division, is presented to an author who has made significant contributions to Native American literature. The 1989 award was presented to N. Scott Momaday; the 1990 award to Paula Gunn Allen, and the 1991 award presented to James Welch.

Proposed the establishment of the Native American International Prize in Literature at the University of Oklahoma. This initiative is directed by Djelal Kadir, director of World Literature Today, and Gerald Vizenor, University of California, Berkeley.

Book Collection Contest, award judge, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1990.

Faculty sponsor, Mixedblood Student Alliance, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1990.

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