UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Department of Geography will host Meredith Alberta Palmer, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University at Buffalo, for its fall 2024 Coffee Hour lecture series.

Palmer’s presentation, titled "Colonial power and hybridity's consequences," will address the relationship between Indigenous dispossession, biomedicine and settler sovereignty. The event is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 25, in 529 Walker Building on the University Park campus, and will also be accessible via Zoom.

Palmer’s research explores the mid-20th century emergence of a “partial Indianness” identity within biomedical research. Her talk will focus on how Native Americans were framed as research subjects by international groups studying genetics, migration and disease risks such as type 2 diabetes. She will also examine the influence of these studies on blood quantum policies and congressional discussions on termination policies aimed at dissolving U.S. tribal lands and governance.

A critical Indigenous geographer, Palmer investigates the tools and methods of colonial occupation and highlights efforts to reject and resist these practices. Her work emphasizes Indigenous responses to colonial power within territories currently known as North America.

Palmer is a member of the Tuscarora Nation, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of Ohswé, Grand River) by her mother’s lineage. She earned her doctorate in geography and her master’s degree in public health, both from the University of California, Berkeley, and her bachelor’s degree in development sociology from Cornell University.

Palmer's talk is part of the fall 2024 Coffee Hour seminar series hosted by Penn State’s Department of Geography. For more information and to access the Zoom link, visit the Coffee Hour event webpage.