Anton Treuer named director of AIRC at BSU
BEMIDJI – Anton “Tony” Treuer, professor of languages and ethnic studies at Bemidji State University, has been named the director of the American Indian Resource Center at Bemidji State University.
“Dr. Treuer is ideally suited to direct and expand our efforts not only to provide services to the three bands in our region, but also to develop the AIRC into a national beacon for Native education, research and language preservation,” said Richard Hanson, president of BSU and Northwest Technical College in a release.
Treuer’s duties as AIRC director begin Thursday. He replaces Don Day, former director of the AIRC, who assumed the presidency at Leech Lake Tribal College in July. Day had been AIRC director for four years.
Treuer has been a member of BSU’s Department of Languages and Ethnic Studies since 2000, where he has taught Ojibwe language courses and classes on Ojibwe culture, history and literature.
Prior to joining the BSU faculty, Treuer was an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for four years.
He said he is eager to tackle the challenges of his new position with short- and long-term strategies.
“This is a critical time for both the university and for Indian country,” Treuer said in the release. “With the financial realities at the state level, the university and the AIRC need dynamic leadership that can come up with some new, innovative approaches to growth and to the services we provide.”
In addition to his role on the BSU faculty, Treuer is editor of the “Oshkaabewis Native Journal,” the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language, and author or editor of nine books.
Treuer’s book, “Ojibwe in Minnesota” was named Minnesota’s Best Read by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in 2010. He edited “Awesiinyensag: Dibaajimowinan Ji-gikinoo’amaageng,” an Ojibwe-language children’s book that was named Minnesota’s Best Read for 2011. This summer, he won the Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History for his book, “The Assassination of Hole in the Day.”
Treuer is on the boards for the White Earth Land Recovery Project, Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota and the Minnesota State Arts Board. He has received more than 40 awards and fellowships from organizations including the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bush Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
Treuer has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and holds master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Minnesota.
