Nationally renowned indigenous scholar to discuss resiliency

David E. Wilkins, the McKnight Presidential Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota, will discuss “Resiliency, Reconciliation and the Law: The Continuing Struggle for Human Rights among American Indians.” 

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place Monday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. in Fralin Auditorium, located on campus at 360 West Campus Drive.

Wilkins is author of numerous articles and books including the recently released Hollow Justice: A History of Indigenous Claims in the United States; American Indian Politics and the American Political System; Documents of Native American Political Development: 1500s-1933; and Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance.

“Professor Wilkins is one of indigenous America’s foremost scholar activists, said Sam Cook, associate professor of sociology and director of the American Indian Studies program at Virginia Tech. “He is well-known for his application of critical legal theory to scrutinize the inherent contradictions in federal Indian policy.”

Wilkins has held several endowed visiting positions and fellowships at Standford, Dartmouth, Harvard, and other institutions, and also holds adjunct appointments in law, political science, and American studies at the University of Minnesota.

Wilkins, a member of the Lumbee nation, also gave the keynote address for the Virginia Indian Summit on Higher Education, which was hosted at Virginia Tech last spring.

This event is the third in a speaker series entitled “Human Rights, Reconciliation, and Community Resiliency, sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences; the Dean’s Advisory Committee on International Initiatives in that college as well as its Diversity Committee; the Department of Sociology; the American Indian Studies program; VTAdvance; and the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.