Native American and Indigenous Studies Scholar & Artist
Blaire Morseau is a citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, beadwork artist, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies as well as affiliate faculty in American Indian and Indigenous Studies at Michigan State University. Before joining MSU, she was Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston where she served as Interim Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies. Dr. Morseau also worked as her tribe’s first Archivist where she launched the online collections website, Wiwkwébthëgen. Her expertise is in Indigenous futurisms and science fiction with research interests in digital humanities, counter-mapping, and tribal archives. She recently released an edited volume titled, As Sacred to Us: Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories In Their Contexts.
morseaub at msu dot edu
Selected Publications
Morseau, B., Ed. (2023). “As Sacred to Us” Simon Pokagon’s Birch Bark Stories in their Contexts. Michigan State University Press. (purchase)
Morseau, B. (under review) “Indigenizing Futures in Museum Contexts.” In Native Lives, Native Truths, Wali, Alaka and Tom Skwerski (eds.). BAR.
Morseau, B. (2023). “Coding Potawatomi Cosmologies: Elements of Bodwéwadmi Futurisms.” In The Routledge Companion to Alternative Futurisms, Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva, Grace Dillon, Isiah Lavender III, and Taryne Jade Taylor (eds.), Routledge Literature Handbooks (New York, NY), 153–61. (download)
Topash-Caldwell, B. (2020). Sovereign Futures in Neshnabé Speculative Fiction, Borderlands Journal, 19(2): 29-62. (download)
Topash-Caldwell, B. (2020). “Beam Us Up, Bgwëthnėnė!” A Discussion of Indigenizing Science (Fiction), Technology, Engineering, and Math, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 16(2): 81-89. (download)
Artwork
Blaire combines traditional Potawatomi designs with futurist and pop culture references to tell multi-layer stories in her beadwork. Some of Blaire’s work is on permanent display at Four Winds Casino Resort in South Bend, IN and will be on permanent display at the Pokagon Band Peace and Justice Center in Dowagiac, MI. See more here.