Fourteenth Biennial SEA Conference, 5-8 June 2025, University of Notre Dame
Common Reading Initiative
The Common Reading Initiative title for for this year’s conference is As Sacred to Us: Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories in Their Contexts, organized by Blaire Morseau (Religious Studies and American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Michigan State U; citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians) and Kelly Wisecup (English, Northwestern U).
There are four Common Read events planned for the conference, including:
— “We Learn on Sacred Ground”: An Indigenous Walking Tour of Notre Dame (Thursday, June 5, 3-5 p.m.);
— A panel titled “Aside from Pokagon: Teaching Other Nineteenth-Century Anishnaabeg Writers” (Panel 11, Friday, June 6, 2-3:15 p.m.);
— A workshop, “Teaching and Learning with Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories: Engaging Students through Arts and Discussion” (Panel 23, Saturday, June 7, 8:30-9:45 a.m.); and,
— “Demonstration of an Antique Printing Machine and the Production of Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories” (Panel 26, Saturday, June 7, 10-11:15 a.m.)