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Cherokee author Robert Conley named new Sequoyah professor
6/2/2008 - 
Noted Cherokee scholar Robert J. Conley, pictured, a prolific author with 80 books to his credit during a career spanning 40 years, is the new Sequoyah Distinguished Professor in Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University.
Conley’s appointment to the endowed professorship, effective July 1, follows a nationwide search that began in January. He will move into a multi-year, fixed-term faculty position held previously by Thomas Hatley, an acclaimed scholar of Colonial-era Cherokee history appointed to the professorship in 2002.
“Tom Hatley has served both the university and the Cherokee community well, playing a vital role in developing important partnerships between Western Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,” said Wendy Ford, dean of WCU’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Hatley was instrumental in creating a memorandum of understanding between tribal and university leaders, an agreement that has led to projects to restore once plentiful rivercane (a staple of Cherokee basketmakers) and to expand efforts to develop programs to prevent the loss of the Cherokee language, Ford said.
“We look to Robert Conley to build upon those existing partnerships and provide leadership for the continued development of education programs, cultural enrichment and research for the benefit of all who are interested in the preservation of Cherokee heritage and the future of the people of the Qualla Boundary,” she said.
In addition to Conley’s responsibilities as a teacher and scholar of Cherokee and Native American studies, he will be instrumental in the development of the new Tsalagi Institute, and will serve as its founding director. The institute will focus on the coordination and implementation of future projects involving the university, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other Native American constituents.
An enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Conley has held teaching and administrative positions at numerous institutions during his career, including Northern Illinois University, Southwest Missouri State University, Eastern Montana College, Bacone College, Morningside College, University of New Mexico and Lenoir-Rhyne College. He was an adjunct faculty member in WCU’s Cherokee studies program in 2005.
Conley has won numerous awards for his writing, including the Wordcraft Circle “Wordcrafter of the Year” in 1997, and “Writer of the Year” in 1999 for fiction for his “War Women.” His “The Cherokee Nation: A History” was selected by the American Library Association as an “outstanding academic title” for 2005, and his “Cherokee Medicine Man” was a 2007 nominee for the Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma competition. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame in 1996.
Conley said he is eager to join the faculty at Western. “I know this will be an exciting and rewarding venture. I am looking forward very much to working with and getting better acquainted with students, faculty and administrators at WCU, and with members of the Eastern Band of Cherokees. I want to seek dialogue with tribal officials and tribal members to find out what they want from WCU and then to see if that is something that we, at the university, can pursue,” he said.
“Making the move to North Carolina is like going home, even though I was born in Oklahoma, because North Carolina is home to all Cherokees,” Conley said. “The first time my wife and I visited North Carolina some years ago, a Cherokee lady said to us, ‘Welcome home.’ When it came time for us to leave, neither of us wanted to go.”
The $1 million Sequoyah Distinguished Professorship in Cherokee Studies at WCU was fully funded in 1998. Funds to match a state grant for the position came from several sources over the course of several years, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Friends of Sequoyah Organization, Cherokee businessman James A. “Jimmy” Cooper, and Harrah’s Entertainment.
The professorship is named in honor of Sequoyah, an 18th-century Cherokee man who devised the Cherokee syllabary, the first Native American system of writing in North America.
Maintained by the Office of Public Relations
Last updated Monday, June 2, 2008
Noted Cherokee scholar Robert J. Conley, pictured, a prolific author with 80 books to his credit during a career spanning 40 years, is the new Sequoyah Distinguished Professor in Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University.Conley’s appointment to the endowed professorship, effective July 1, follows a nationwide search that began in January. He will move into a multi-year, fixed-term faculty position held previously by Thomas Hatley, an acclaimed scholar of Colonial-era Cherokee history appointed to the professorship in 2002.
“Tom Hatley has served both the university and the Cherokee community well, playing a vital role in developing important partnerships between Western Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,” said Wendy Ford, dean of WCU’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Hatley was instrumental in creating a memorandum of understanding between tribal and university leaders, an agreement that has led to projects to restore once plentiful rivercane (a staple of Cherokee basketmakers) and to expand efforts to develop programs to prevent the loss of the Cherokee language, Ford said.
“We look to Robert Conley to build upon those existing partnerships and provide leadership for the continued development of education programs, cultural enrichment and research for the benefit of all who are interested in the preservation of Cherokee heritage and the future of the people of the Qualla Boundary,” she said.
In addition to Conley’s responsibilities as a teacher and scholar of Cherokee and Native American studies, he will be instrumental in the development of the new Tsalagi Institute, and will serve as its founding director. The institute will focus on the coordination and implementation of future projects involving the university, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and other Native American constituents.
An enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Conley has held teaching and administrative positions at numerous institutions during his career, including Northern Illinois University, Southwest Missouri State University, Eastern Montana College, Bacone College, Morningside College, University of New Mexico and Lenoir-Rhyne College. He was an adjunct faculty member in WCU’s Cherokee studies program in 2005.
Conley has won numerous awards for his writing, including the Wordcraft Circle “Wordcrafter of the Year” in 1997, and “Writer of the Year” in 1999 for fiction for his “War Women.” His “The Cherokee Nation: A History” was selected by the American Library Association as an “outstanding academic title” for 2005, and his “Cherokee Medicine Man” was a 2007 nominee for the Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma competition. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame in 1996.
Conley said he is eager to join the faculty at Western. “I know this will be an exciting and rewarding venture. I am looking forward very much to working with and getting better acquainted with students, faculty and administrators at WCU, and with members of the Eastern Band of Cherokees. I want to seek dialogue with tribal officials and tribal members to find out what they want from WCU and then to see if that is something that we, at the university, can pursue,” he said.
“Making the move to North Carolina is like going home, even though I was born in Oklahoma, because North Carolina is home to all Cherokees,” Conley said. “The first time my wife and I visited North Carolina some years ago, a Cherokee lady said to us, ‘Welcome home.’ When it came time for us to leave, neither of us wanted to go.”
The $1 million Sequoyah Distinguished Professorship in Cherokee Studies at WCU was fully funded in 1998. Funds to match a state grant for the position came from several sources over the course of several years, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Friends of Sequoyah Organization, Cherokee businessman James A. “Jimmy” Cooper, and Harrah’s Entertainment.
The professorship is named in honor of Sequoyah, an 18th-century Cherokee man who devised the Cherokee syllabary, the first Native American system of writing in North America.
Maintained by the Office of Public Relations
Last updated Monday, June 2, 2008