MARQUETTE – Northern Michigan University’s 25th Annual Celebration of Student Scholarship is being reimagined as a virtual event this year today and Thursday. Undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines will share their work through oral and poster presentations, visual art installations and essay submissions.

Today’s event begins with opening remarks at 9 a.m., followed by an awards ceremony at 9:30 and oral presentations from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Both days will feature poster presentations and an art and writing showcase from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., which can be accessed at https://www.nmu.edu/studentcelebration/student-research-abstracts. The event includes a keynote speech titled “Sharing Tabonuco & Giizhik” at 3 p.m. Thursday. Taino burn Tabonuco (candlewood) before a ceremony and Anishinaabe burn Giizhik (cedar) for healing. Erica Moore and Sharity Bassett will circle the questions and experiences that led them where they are today in their profession and research. They will reflect on how knowledge is shared and exchanged between the two researchers and Native American communities. They will also talk about conducting research using decolonizing practices and more diverse methodologies.

Moore is Boriken Taino and a member of the United Confederation of Taino People. She serves as the director of the American Indian Student Center at San Diego State University. Bassett is an assistant professor and co-coordinator of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at South Dakota State University. She is a scholar of Indigenous methodologies, literary analysis and transfeminist theories.

This year’s event is being presented through the web platform GatherTown. NMU’s virtual world is NMUV Campus.