HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

Brian S. Collier, Ph.D.
Graduate Faculty, Alliance for Catholic Education; Fellow, Institute
for Educational Initiatives; Affiliate Faculty, Poverty Studies,
American Studies, and Education, Schooling & Society
Biography
Brian Collier holds a Ph.D. in American Indian History and the History of Education in
America from Arizona State University. He teaches for the Alliance for Catholic Education
and is a fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives. His research in education is at the
Categories
intersection of where families and teachers can truly partner to take back their families,
their schools, and their neighborhoods. His historical research on Native people focuses on Education, History, Social
American Indian boarding schools and their legacy in the 20th century. Collier himself was Concerns
a teacher at St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe before it closed its doors in 1998, and
he learned a great deal about Native people and culture from that experience. Since that
experience, he has studied the closure of Native American Catholic schools and Catholic education more broadly. Collier has
written articles and book chapters on Native Americans, the American West, teaching in the American West, race relations,
gender, and the Harlem Globetrotters.
Lectures
Creating an American Identity: American Indians and the Co-opting of Identity
There are Apache helicopters, Jeep Cherokees, and Notre Dame sits next to Mishawaka, IN, said to be named for a Pottawatomie
Princess. Even your breakfast butter likely has an “Indian” on it. There are numerous other examples of American places and
brands that borrow from Native American life and culture. Does borrowing an indigenous identity somehow give Americans a
better sense of belonging to this land and make them feel more at home on this continent? Is there any harm that comes from
the Native images and stereotypes that we are surrounded by as a nation and culture? Our native narrative includes plenty of
Native places and people, but what happens to a nation when myth and branding replace history and colonization? The lessons of
co-opting an identity are harsh, but this is not a preachy lecture, but rather a thought provoking and humorous one designed to
get people to question the choices they make and the identities they’ve created. Stories do have power in American history, and
the stories we tell will be how we’re judged in the future.
Save Our Schools, Save Our Country, and Save Your Family
How did we get to the point where so many American schools struggle and yet so many kids are busier than any time since World
War II. As families race to soccer practices and scouts, wait in drop-off lines and at oboe lessons, and sit through recitals, parents
wonder how this is the fulfillment of the American dream. This lecture actually traces American education since the turn of the
20th century and shows what has changed and what some of our predecessors did really well to raise “the greatest generation.”
What lessons can be learned from the schools who trained humans to go to the moon, write novels, plays, and create television
programming? This engaging lecture also promises to be funny and cause everyone to go home with ideas about how to change
their own family structure to ensure their kids are getting the education they need to help re-shape America.
24 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program