Area chair
Jay Precht (Penn State Fayette)
Proposals focusing on any issue pertaining to the experience, literature, representation, or history of Native Americans, especially in the 500 years since the conquest, are welcome. Some questions to consider: How have Native Americans been portrayed in mainstream popular culture through the centuries—in various media such as fiction, poetry, film, television, painting, and advertising, or as sports mascots and in educational institutions—and how have Native Americans themselves resisted or subverted such representations? What can such language and images tell us about the cultural and political dynamics of the relationship between the first peoples of and latecomers to North America?