Michelene Pesantubbee, Department of Religious Studies -- The University of Iowa

314 Gilmore Hall • Iowa City, IA 52242 • 319-335-2164

CURRICULUM VITAE
Michelene E. Pesantubbee

Business Address:

Department of Religious Studies
312 Gilmore
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

Telephone: 319-335-2116

E-mail: michelene-pesantubbe@uiowa.edu

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, December 1994
Dissertation: The Role of Choctaw Churches in the Revitalization of Choctaw Culture and Identity

M.A., Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 1991
Thesis: "When the Earth Shakes: The Cherokee Prophecies of 1811-12"

M.S., Business Education, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1978

B.S., Business Education, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1975

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

Assistant Professor, Religious Studies and American Indian and Native Studies, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 2003-present.

Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder 1995-2003.

Lecturer, Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, Spring 2002.

Instructor, Religious Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, August-December 1994.

Teaching Assistant, "Introduction to Native American Religious Traditions," University of California, Santa Barbara, Winter Quarter 1992.

Reader, "History of the American Indian," University of California, Santa Barbara, Spring Quarter 1991.

Research Assistant/Mentor, Graduate Research Mentorship Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, September 1989-June 1990, September 1990-June 1991, and September 1991-June 1992.

Lecturer, "Contemporary American Indian Issues" and "College Learning Experience," Bacone College, Muskogee, Oklahoma, 1988-89.

Lecturer, “Cultural Foundations of Education” and “Colloquium/Fieldwork in Cultural Foundations of Education,” University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Fall 1985.

Lecturer, “Problems in American Indian Education” and “American Indian Heritage,” San Diego State University, 1984-85.

TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS

Native American Religious Traditions (Specialization: Southeastern Native American Traditions and Native American Religious Movements)
Native American Women and Religion
American Indian and Native Studies

TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

Fall 2003 149:049 Introduction to American Indian and Native Studies
149:080 American Indian Revitalization Movements

Spring 2004 032:060 Introduction to Native American Religions

AWARDS

Faculty Excellence and Equity Award, University of Colorado, Boulder, April 2001.

Academic Recognition, Academic Support Assistance Program, Dept. of Housing, University of Colorado, Boulder, March 10, 1998.

Biography in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, 2002, seventh edition.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Research Fellowship, Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, 2001-02.

Arts & Sciences Diversity Grant for colloquium speaker for Religious Studies, 1998.

Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities (GCAH) for colloquium speaker for Religious Studies, 1998.

Implementation of Multicultural Perspectives and Approaches in Research and Teaching (Impart) Grant, 1995 and 1997.

President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of California, 1993-94.

UCSB General Affiliates Graduate Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, 1993.

Humanities/Social Sciences Research Grant, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993.

Graduate Student Humanities/Social Sciences Research Grant, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1991-92.

Grant for the Newberry Library Documentary Workshop on Native American Sacred Texts, Chicago, IL, August 1991.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World: The Clash of Cultures in the Colonial Southeast. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

Journal Articles and Invited Chapters – Peer Reviewed

“In Search of the White Path: American Indian Peacebuilding,” invited chapter for Religion and Peacebuilding, eds. Harold Coward and Gordon S. Smith, State University of New York Press, 2004.

“Religious Studies on the Margins: Decolonizing Our Minds,” invited chapter for peer reviewed book, Native Voices: American Indian Identity and Resistance, eds. Richard A. Grounds, George E. Tinker, and David E. Wilkins, University of Kansas Press, 2003.

“From Vision to Violence: The Wounded Knee Massacre.” Chapter in Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, Syracuse University Press, 2000.

“Beyond Domesticity: Choctaw Women Negotiating the Tension between Choctaw Culture and Protestantism,” Journal of American Academy of Religion, 67/2 (June 1999): 387-409.

"When the Earth Shakes: The Cherokee Prophecies of 1811-12," American Indian Quarterly 17, 3 (Summer 1993): 301-17.

Invited Essay – Non-refereed

“Cherokee Religious Traditions,” Encyclopedia of Religion, Edition 2, Macmillan Reference, 2004.

"The Road to Middle Class Indian America," in American Indian Identity: Today's Changing Perspective, edited by Cliff Trafzer. San Diego State University Publications in American Indian Studies, 1985. Reprinted by Sierra Oaks Publishing Company, 1986.

Encyclopedic Entries

Co-author, “New Religions: (06) In Native American Traditions” in Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion, New York: MacMillan Publishing, USA, 1998.

"Mountain Wolf Woman," in Religious Leaders in America, edited by Gordon Melton. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1991.

Miscellaneous Publications

“Wounded Knee: A Time to Forgive, but not to Forget,” Center for the American West Commentary, Daily Camera, December 29, 1998.

Compiler and Editor, Resource Directory of American Indian Professionals, Native American Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1987.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

Ohoyo Osh Chisba: The Legacy of Corn Woman, book manuscript under contract with University of New Mexico Press.

“In Search of the White Path: American Indian Peacebuilding,” invited chapter for Religion and Peacebuilding, eds. Harold Coward and Gordon S. Smith, expected publication date Fall 2003 by SUNY Press.

“Beyond Domesticity: Choctaw Women Negotiating the Tension between Choctaw Culture and Protestantism,” to be reprinted in Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignties: Native American Studies in the Americas, ed. Ines Hernandez-Avila.

“Wounded Knee: Symbol of Resistance and Recovery,” chapter in progress for Recovering Memory: Exposing Religion, Violence, and the Remembrance of Place, eds. Oren Baruch Stier and J. Shawn Landres.

BOOK REVIEWS

Steinmetz, Paul B., S.J. The Sacred Pipe: An Archetypal Theology. Syracuse University Press, 1998. In Nova Religio, 2001.

Pflug, Melissa A. Ritual and Myth in Odawa Revitalization: Reclaiming a Sovereign Place. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. In Religious Studies Review 25, 2 (April 1999): 220.

Lesser, Alexander. The Pawnee Ghost Dance Hand Game. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 (reprint). In Journal of Ritual Studies 10, 2 (Winter 1996): 137-38.

Hatley, Tom. The Dividing Paths. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. In American Indian Quarterly 19, 2 (Spring 1995): 290-92.

Hultkrantz, Ake. Shamanic Healing and Ritual Drama: Health and Medicine in Native North American Religious Traditions. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992. In American Indian Quarterly 17, 2 (Spring 1993): 281-82.

Book Reviews Submitted

Jace Weaver, ed. Native American Religious Identity; Unforgotten Gods. Orbis Books, 1998 for Nova Religio.

Judith Vander. Shoshone Ghost Dance Religion; Poetry Songs and Great Basin Context. University of Illinois Press, 1997 for Nova Religio.

PRESENTATIONS AND LECTURES

Professional Societies

“Nancy Ward: American Heroine or Keeper of the White Path,” paper presented at joint session of Native Traditions in the Americans and Women and Religion, American Academy of Religion, Atlanta, Georgia, November 22, 2003.

“Ritual and Identity: The Intersection between the Green Corn Ceremony and Choctaw Women’s Roles,” paper presented at Rocky Mountain/Great Plains Regional American Academy of Religion Meeting, April 5, 2003.

“Ineffective or Insidious?: French Catholic Missionary Impact on Native Women in Louisiana Territory,” paper presented at joint session of Roman Catholic Studies Section and North American Religions Section, American Academy of Religion, Toronto, Canada, November 25, 2002.

“From Beloved Woman to Chattel: The Impact of War and Slavery on the Status of Choctaw Women in the French Colonial Era,” paper presented at Women and Religion Section, American Academy of Religion, Nashville, TN, November 18, 2000.

“From Vision to Violence: The Wounded Knee Massacre,” paper presented at New Religious Movements Group, American Academy of Religion, Boston, MA, November 22, 1999.

”Re-Imagining Choctaw Women: Protestant or Choctaw,” plenary paper presented at Indigenous Sovereignties: A Hemispheric Convocation, University of California, Davis, April 10, 1998. Also presented at Society for the Study of Native American Religious Traditions, Orlando, FL, November 20, 1998.

Response Paper, “Redrawing the Boundaries: Tradition and Change Among Native Christians,” North American Religions Section and Native Traditions in the Americas Group, American Academy of Religion, Orlando, FL, November 22, 1998.

“In Search of Beloved Women,” Women and Religion Section, American Academy of Religion, Orlando, FL, November 23, 1998.

“Transforming the Choctaw Christian Experience: Appropriation or Indigenization,” paper presented at Rocky Mountain/Great Plains Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion annual meeting, May 3, 1997.

"Rising Out of the Cultural Diaspora: Choctaw Women and the Protestant Church," paper presented at the Women and Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 24, 1996.

Panelist, "Teaching Ambiguities: Native American Religious Traditions in the Classroom," at the Academic Teaching and the Study of Religion Section and Native Traditions in the Americas Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 25, 1996.

"Restoring the Circle: Beloved Women and the Cycle of Revitalization," paper presented at the Women and Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 19, 1995.

Respondent on "Daring to Dance: Circular 1665 and Changes in Native American Religious Practices in the 1920s," at Western History Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO, October 13, 1995.

Panel Presentation on Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide, at Justice and Peace Studies Book Session, Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Regional American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, April 28, 1995.

Panel Presentation on Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide, at the Society for the Study of Native American Religious Traditions annual meeting, Chicago, IL, November 18, 1994.

“The Sound of Church Bells: Ringing in a New Era for the Choctaw of Oklahoma,” paper presented at the Native Traditions in the Americas Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 22, 1993.

“The Cherokee Prophecies of 1811-1812: A Case Study in Cultural Change and Continuity,” paper presented at The American Academy of Religion Western Chapter, Fullerton, CA, March 20, 1993.

Invited Talks and Lectures

“Ohoyo Osh Chisba and Beloved Choctaw Women: The Last Dance of the Green Corn,” public lecture, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, March 13, 2002.

“Giving Voice to the Void: Choctaw Beloved Women in the French Colonial Period,” Lecture, Studies in Feminist Liberation Theologies Lecture Series, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA, March 4, 2002.

“Amaizeing the Academy: Cultivating Native-Centered Approaches in Academic,” Rupert Costo Conversations, University of California, Riverside, June 6, 2001.

Plenary Speaker, “The Historic Role of Native Americans in Leadership,” Native American College/University Gathering, The United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN February 2, 2001.

Presentation on “Native American Leadership and Peacebuilding,” Environmental Studies Department’s Integrative Dialogues Program, Naropa University, November 2, 2000.

Presenter, Religiosidades, Filosofias E Historias Indigenas/Native Religion, Philosophy, and History; and Coordinator, Los Luchas de las Mujeres Indigenes/Native Women’s Struggles, Indigenous Intellectual Sovereignties: A Hemispheric Convocation, Oaxaca, Mexico, August 20-22, 1998.

Panelist, “Cultural Appropriation of Indigenous Spirituality,” at Cultural Appropriation Roundtable, Women’s Resource Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, November 10, 1998.

“Choctaw Women: The Cult of True Womanhood,” paper presented at Talking Across Differences: A Feminist Symposium, University of Colorado, Boulder, February 28, 1998.

“Choctaw Women and the Retention of Traditional Culture in Protestant Choctaw Churches,” paper presented at The University of Georgia, Department of Religion and the Humanities Center Colloquium, May 21, 1997.

Panelist, “Emerging from Turtle Island: Oral Histories,” at First Peopling of the Americas Symposium, Graduate School, University of Colorado, Boulder, January 16, 1997.

Guest lecture on Choctaw religious traditions, Metro State College, Denver, CO, October 3, 1997.

Panel Host, Lambda Rising Conference, April 19, 1997.

“No More Shade Tree Preachers’: Culture and Identity in Choctaw Churches,” paper presented at the Department of Religious Studies colloquium, University of California, Riverside, October 7, 1993.

“The Power of Speech and Thought in Native American Healing,” presentation given at Choices ‘92/Results 2000 Conference, University of California, Santa Barbara, May 16, 1992.

Panelist, “Varieties of Feminism from a Native American Perspective,” Women’s Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, October 9, 1991.

“American Indian Prophecy in the 1990s,” paper presented at Century Club Symposium, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 1, 1991.

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Faculty Advisory Council Board Member, Center for the American West, University of Colorado, Fall 1997-Spring 2001. (On leave for 2001-2002.)

Member, American Indian Advocacy, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1995-Present; Chair, Spring 1997-Spring 1999.

Faculty Advisor, American Indian Graduate Student Association, University of Colorado, Boulder, August 1998-June 2001.

Faculty Representative, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, 1996-1998.

Acting Chair, Chancellor’s Standing Committee on GLBT Issues, January-May, 2001. Member, September-December, 2000.

Member, Search Committee, Counselor Position, Cultural Unity Student Center, January 1998.

Member/Participant, Advocacy Alliance Planning Committee for Coordinators of Services, Spring and Summer 1998.

Member, Chancellor’s Committee on Women, Spring 1996-January 1997.

Speaker on bi-racial and lesbian issues among American Indian cultures for Inservice Training on Multicultural Issues, Counseling Services, February 19, 1997.

Reviewer for “A Comparison of Hopi and Navajo Religious Acculturation,” Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, Fall 1996.

Member, Nominating Committee, Faculty of Color Organization (FOCO), December 1995.

SERVICE

Department Service

Search Committee for faculty position in Religion, Politics, and Social Justice (Fall 2004)

Faculty Steering Committee, American Indian and Native Studies Program (Fall 2003-present)

University of Iowa

Panelist, Celebration and Consideration: Seasonal Observances and Religious Diversity Panel, December 19, 2005

Reader, CIC Graduate Student Spring Seminar Applications (Fall 2004)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Panelist and participant, Teaching for Change: Creating Knowledge, Transforming Institutions Conference, sponsored by the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc., Cambridge, MA, June 10-14, 2005.

Panelist, review of pre-doctoral proposals, Ford Foundation, The National Academies, Washington, D.C., March 3-6, 2005.

External Reviewer for Dr. Pamela Owen's tenure case, Department of Religion, University of Nebraska, Omaha, Fall 2005.

Presider, Innovative Methodologies, Women and Religion Session, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 19, 2005.

Presider, Women's Religious Leadership, Women and Religion Session, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 19, 2005.

Mentor at Mentoring Session with the Status of Women in the Profession Committee and the Women's Caucus, American Academy of Religion, November 20, 2005.

Executive Secretary, American Academy of Religion, December 2004 to present.

Reader Review, "Walking the Line: Pipe & Sweat Ceremonies in Prison" for Nova Religio, December 2003.

Member, American Academy of Religion, 1989 to Present.

Reviewer, Centre for Studies in Religion & Society Annual Fellowship Competition for 2001-03, Fall 2001.

Co-Chair, Native Traditions of the Americas Group, American Academy of Religion, November 1998 to Present; Steering Committee Member, Fall 1992 to November 1998.

Academic Representative, amicus curiae brief, Devil’s Tower litigation, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, September 1998.

Manuscript Reviews for American Indian Culture and Research Journal: “Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet: A Case Study in Charismatic Leadership,” 1999; “Taino Ascendent: Extinction, Continuities and Reassertions,” July 1998.

External Evaluator for Dr. George Tinker, Assoc. Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions, Iliff School of Theology, Fall 1996.

Member, Society for the Study of Native American Religious Traditions, 1989 to present. Nominating Committee member, 1995.

Editorial Board Member, Encyclopedia of American Indian Religious Traditions, ABC-CLIO.

Appointment to the Participating Scholars of The Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics.

Chair and Respondent for panel on “American Religions: Native American Religions,” at The American Academy of Religion Western Chapter, Fullerton, CA, March 19, 1993.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Radio interview on Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World on Indian Voices Program, KGNU Independent Community Radio, Denver/Boulder, CO, September 25, 2005.

Radio interview on Choctaw Women in a Chaotic World on Native America Calling Program, National Native News, May 25, 2005.

Guest speaker, Cultural Awareness Week, Kennedy High School, Cedar Rapids, IA, October 5, 2005.

Lecturer and facilitator, Introduction to Native American Religious Traditions for Religious Diversity in America Intensive Summer Course, The Interfaith Center of New York and New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies, New York City, June 23, 2004.

Guest speaker on Choctaw Women and Changing Religious Practices for the Docents in the American Indian Department of the Denver Art Museum, Colorado, April 21, 2003.

Plenary speaker, “Violence Against Women” at “Native Women: Making the Invisible – Visible,” Southeast Jurisdictional Women’s Retreat, The United Methodist Church, Daytona Beach, FL, October 25, 2002.

Guest speaker on American Indian Women’s Leadership, United Methodist Church Clergy Women’s Retreat, Grand Rapids, MI, August 12, 2002.

Presenter, “Choctaw Women as Beloved Women,” Colorado Friends of WSRP, Vail, CO, July 29, 2002.

Presenter, “Shaping Sacred and Secular Space: Women Define Religious and Social Worlds” Conference, Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Cambridge, MA, January 27, 2002.

Presenter, “Women’s Studies in Religion Program Panel Presentation,” Harvard Club of New York City, May 8, 2002.

Guest speaker, “Living in Two Cultures: Gay and Native American, PFLAG, at First United Methodist Church, February 17, 2000.

Guest speaker, “Navajo Culture and Religious Traditions,” St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, Boulder, CO, February 21, 1995.

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