��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ loses distinguished faculty member

trevor.kenney — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:58:17 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community offers its most sincere condolences to the family, friends, students and many colleagues of the late Dr. Don Birchfield, a professor of Native American Studies, award-winning author and champion of, and mentor to, numerous students.

Don served the Department of Native American Studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge since 2001. He passed into the spirit world in the early hours of Friday, September 7, 2012. He will be greatly missed.

At this time, a memorial service is yet to be finalized. This notice will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.

Don Birchfield was a graduate of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Oklahoma College of Law and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Prior to teaching at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, Don taught American Indian studies at Cornell ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of New Mexico, and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

He served as book review editor for Studies In American Indian Literatures (SAIL), Native Americas, and News From Indian Country, and is a former editor of Camp Crier at the Oklahoma City Native American Center.

His Oklahoma Basic Intelligence Test (Greenfield Review Center, 1998) won the First Book Award For Prose from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas, and his Field of Honor (U of OK P, 2004) won the Writer of the Year award from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers and the Spur Award for Best First Novel from Western Writers of America.

His other books include Black Silk Handkerchief: A Hom-Astubby Mystery (U of OK P, 2006) and nineteen textbooks for children from educational publishers.

Don was a founding member of the National Advisory Caucus of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers. He was General Editor of the eleven-volume Encyclopedia of North American Indians (Marshall Cavendish, 1997).

In 2007, he was the Distinguished Lecturer at the 84th annual convention of the Central States Anthropological Society. His most recent book, How Choctaws Invented Civilization and Why Choctaws Will Conquer The World (U of NM P, 2007), treats American history, American Indian law and policy, Choctaw history, and academe as objects of satire.

Prentice Institute taking shape with McDaniel appointment

trevor.kenney — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:15:48 +0000

Numbers can be cold, hard and impersonal. Put them in the hands of Dr. Susan McDaniel however and they can be used to influence policy decisions that effect change at the most personal of levels.

The newly appointed director of the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy is an internationally renowned sociology researcher and demographics expert, combining her love for mathematics with a penchant to study people and society's big-picture issues. It was a research focus that was initially unintentional but has proven to be a life's work.

"Demography allows you to see how individual actions don't add up to what you think they'll add up to," McDaniel explains.
"The collective outcome of individual actions is very different than what the individuals intend and it's that kind of mystery that entices me. To me it's phenomenal because some of it is counter-intuitive and I'm still fascinated by that."

McDaniel returns to Alberta (the place she mostly refers to as home) from Utah where she was a senior scholar at the Institute of Public and International Affairs and Professor of Family and Consumer Studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Utah. Previously, she'd spent 15 years at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta as a full professor of sociology and another three years at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Windsor.

Her return is a testament to the U of L, its vision and the opportunity afforded her as the first director of the Prentice Institute.

"There were no push factors for me leaving Utah, it was all pull," McDaniel says. "I'm hoping to really build this institute as a centre that people will say, 'The Prentice Institute is a leader on . . .'. That would really be great."

The mandate of the Prentice Institute is to promote the research of big-picture issues relating to global population change and demographics, among other topics. McDaniel is enthused by the opportunity to be in on the ground floor of constructing the Institute and its reputation.

"My goal is building something that's not just flash and dash but something solid that will last for a long time, and when people think about population issues and economy, they think about the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge," she says.

Getting to this point has been a long and non-traditional route for McDaniel.
Entering post-secondary study as a math major, a bad experience in her first course turned her eye elsewhere and she found demography.

"It was a question of using mathematics to study people and I thought, wow, I've found my calling," she says.

Through demography she slowly made her way into studying the societal impacts of her demographic research. Ironically, she is now world renowned as a research sociologist, has written an introductory sociology textbook and taught the course at a post-secondary level but because she entered the field through the back door, never actually took introductory sociology.

McDaniel's extensive research, publishing and teaching record reflect her varied interests and research on demographic aging, generational relations, family change and the social impacts of technology.

The arrival of the Prentice Institute comes at a perfect time for the U of L as it continues to emerge as a leading comprehensive university. McDaniel revels in building graduate programming, has a long record of collaborating with the best doctoral and post-doctoral researchers and trumpets the concept of community outreach, from local to international levels.

"The idea is to build interdisciplinary research that will have public and policy interest, but also to have outreach to the community. I want to see public issues of importance addressed here, and in a profound way," McDaniel says.
"What interests me is the notion that this is global. This is a new concept at the U of L and an area of strength that we're planning on building."

GET THE FACTS

• The Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy was established in late 2006, when John Prentice, a Calmar, Alta., based agri-business entrepreneur, with his wife, Connie, donated $8.25 million to the U of L – the largest private philanthropic gift the U of L has received in its 40-year history.

• McDaniel took her undergraduate studies at ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Massachusetts, studied a master's degree at Cornell ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and her PhD at ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta.

• A lover of bird watching, walking and jogging, McDaniel is apt to be spotted enjoying the outdoors with her one-year-old Maltese puppy Victoria

• Her research on gender and aging issues led to her involvement in the Dove soap self-esteem campaign

• McDaniel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

• In addition to her role as director of the Prentice Institute, McDaniel will also teach an undergraduate course at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ

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