Anthropologist to open UMPI lecture series

PRESQUE ISLE – Dr. Harald Prins will be the first speaker in the spring University Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. His topic will be “Borderline Reflections: American Patriotism and the Quest for Maine Indian Rights.” He will deliver the lecture at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25, in the Campus Center.

Prins’ lecture, in keeping with this year’s theme of borders, will focus on the political impact of imposed boundaries on the region’s American Indians and their ongoing struggle for free border-crossing rights in their ancestral homelands.

Born and raised in the Netherlands, Prins was trained academically in prehistoric archeology, social anthropology and comparative history at various universities in the Netherlands and the United States. He is professor of anthropology at Kansas State University. He has done extensive fieldwork among indigenous peoples in South America and North America. Before joining the KSU faculty, he taught at the University of Nijmegen, Bowdoin College and Colby College.

Also professionally trained in filmmaking, Prins has consulted on numerous films, juried documentary film festivals and serves as president of the Society for Visual Anthropology.

From 1981 to 1991, he served as primary researcher for the Aroostook Band of Micmacs in their land claims and federal recognition struggle.

Other speakers in the spring series include:

. Linda Kintz, professor of English at the University of Oregon, who will speak about “Two Strains of Modern Traditional Women: Professional Anti-Feminists and Religious Women Who Believe in Submission,” Wednesday, Feb. 14.

. Montague Yudelman, fellow at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, and Sally Yudelman, senior fellow, International Center for Research for Women, will visit the campus as a part of the Woodrow Wilson Visiting Scholars program during the week of April 15.