PRESQUE ISLE — Bunny McBride — the award-winning author of four books, the co-author of the world’s leading cultural anthropology textbook, and president of the Women’s World Summit Foundation based in Geneva — is the next speaker in the 2012-13 Distinguished Lecturer Series at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
McBride will deliver her talk, “Passages & Portages: Reflections on Writing about Women across Cultures,” on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m., in the Campus Center. Her presentation is free and open to the public.
During her talk, McBride will reflect on recurrent themes she has explored through the lives of women around the world, with a special focus on Wabanakis in Maine — such as work and motherhood, love and loss, strength and resilience. Women from many cultural niches have shared their stories with her, and she with readers — making connections and marking out bridges of common humanity through their words and hers, woven together on the pages of books, articles and essays.
McBride is an award-winning author and veteran traveler. She has written for international newspapers and magazines about Chinese people in the aftermath of the communist Cultural Revolution, Tuareg camel nomads in the Sahara, threatened gorillas in Rwanda and lemurs in Madagascar, Sami reindeer herders in arctic Scandinavia, Maasai cattle herders in East Africa, and Mi’kmaq and Maliseet basket makers in Aroostook County. With a master’s degree in anthropology from Columbia University, she has taught at various institutions, and is currently an adjunct lecturer of anthropology at Kansas State University. She serves as board member and president of the Women’s World Summit Foundation based in Geneva.
Working on a range of issues and projects with Maine tribes since 1981 — including the Aroostook Band of Micmacs’ federal recognition effort — McBride received a special commendation from the Maine State Legislature for her research and writing on the history of Wabanaki women.
For more information about this Distinguished Lecture, please call the University’s Community and Media Relations Office at 768-9452 or e-mail gayla.shaw@umpi.edu.
