University Libraries Indigenous Nations Library Program will host Peter Nabokov talking about his research on Monday, Sept. 13 from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 226, The Gathering Place, in Zimmerman Library.  This brown bag discussion is titled "Sanctuaries of the Spirit: Architecture as Resistance." The Gathering Place is the new home of the Indigenous Nations Library Program, located on the second floor of Zimmerman Library just off the main lobby.

The focus of the talk is Nabokov's research into architecture that began occurring in the late nineteenth century when ceremonial roundhouses were built in the Great Lakes region as well as the Northern Plains, Southern Plains and California.  Nabokov will argue that this was a form of architectural resistance to the government's assimilation and civilization campaigns and as a way to provide a protective shield for native indigenous spiritual and social practices.

Nabokov is a professor in the department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA. As an anthropologist and writer, Nabokov has conducted ethnographic and ethnohistorical research with Native American communities throughout North America. He is the author of numerous articles and reports and has published eight books, including "Indian Running, Native American Testimony: From Prophecy to the Present 1442 - 1992," and "Native American Architecture."

In 1990-91, he received an Indo-U.S. Sub-commission Fellowship to study in South India. Nabokov recently served on the Anthropology faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is continuing his research on the vernacular architecture of South India as well as his American Indian studies in the Plains, California, and the Southwest.

Currently, Nabokov is completing two books on the relationship between American Indians and Yellowstone National Park, a third trade book on American Indian sacred geography, and his new book,  "A Forest of Time: American Indian Ways of History" was recently published.

The discussion will center on the use of circular roundhouses which began in the reservation era in four different corners of Native America and continues to the present day as a means for protecting/insulating indigenous religious practices.

Media contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu