Dr. Jill Doerfler is the featured speaker for the Nov. 21 presentation of the Thursdays at the U series at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire – Barron County.
Dr. Jill Doerfler
Doerfler, professor and department head in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth, will present “Calculated Identities: The Invention and Imposition of Blood Quantum” from 12:30-1:30 p.m. via Zoom. In-person attendees will gather in the Blue Hills Lecture Hall in Ritzinger Hall and will be able to ask questions . The presentation also will be livestreamed at ricelaketv.com.
Growing up on the White Earth reservation, Doerfler was all too familiar with the divisions caused by using blood quantum as the sole requirement for tribal citizenship. Vast numbers of Anishinaabeg were being excluded under the blood quantum requirement; families were literally divided with some possessing the blood quantum required for citizenship and others lacking it. This concern led to Doerfler researching this topic for her dissertation in American Indian Studies.
Doerfler joined the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth in fall 2008, was tenured in 2013 and became department head in 2014. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Minnesota Morris and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Her primary area of scholarly interest is American Indian identity, specifically Anishinaabe, with a political focus on citizenship.
The Thursdays at the U weekly series is free and open to the public thanks to support from the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County Foundation. Neither seating reservations nor parking permits are needed for in-person attendees.
Although in-person attendance is encouraged, most talks in the series are livestreamed. They also are archived and can be watched later on the Thursdays at the U webpage.
The next lecture in the series will be Dec. 5, with Kriss Marion presenting “Wisconsin Women in Conservation.”
For more information, contact Laura Holden at 715-788-6207 or holdenlk@uwec.edu.
