M. Elise Marubbio

Associate Professor

Elise Marubbio received her B.F.A in photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art. She worked as a photographer in Cleveland before moving to Tucson to study American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona.  She then combined her M.A. in Native American Literature with her passion for art by pursuing a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies with a focus on the issues of race in film and media.  Her scholarship to date analyzes the representation of Native Americans in American popular culture and Hollywood cinema.

She came to Augsburg in 2003 because it is one of the few liberal arts colleges in the country with an American Indian Studies program.  This is an unbeatable combination when “coupled with a strong Women’s Studies program, a growing program in Film Studies, and an English Department that embraces interdisciplinarity and diversity in the study of literature.”

According to Marubbio, two key things make Augsburg the best place to come for American Indian Studies: The program’s dynamic combination of interdisciplinary study and involvement with the community; and the College’s location in the city.  Her courses embrace this.  Her students have opportunities to interact with local Native American writers, filmmakers, artists, community action groups and organizations.  They take part in day trips to various communities, galleries, and historical sites.

Not only is Augsburg the only liberal arts college to offer a variety of Native American film courses, it is also the only college in the Twin Cities to offer a Native American film series.  Marubbio started the Augsburg Native American Film Series in 2003 as an extension of her work in American Indian Studies and her love of the arts.  She visualizes the series as a project committed to affecting the world through artistic collaboration and powered by a belief in the film to inform, affect, and stimulate vastly different groups of people.  The festival’s goals include the following:

1. To offer a regional venue for Native American filmmakers to present their films and to engage other communities in dialogue about the films, the process of working as a Native American filmmaker, and the politics of ethnic-identified filmmaking.

2. To build a collaborative relationship with the local Native American community that honors the rich tradition of Native American film in Minneapolis.

3. Provide an interactive environment within which students and community participants critically engage with the tough issues raised by many Native filmmakers about America’s history, our contemporary culture, and social justice.

4. To provide reservation communities with access to films by and about Native peoples.

Education

• B.F.A., Cleveland Institue of Art
• M.A.
• Ph.D.

Scholarship

• “Death of the Squaw Man’s Wife: The Politics of Cecil B. DeMille’s Adaptations of Edwin Milton Royal’s The Squaw Man” in 2003 Film & History: CD-ROM Annual (Spring 2004).
• “Death, Gratitude, and the Squaw Man’s Wife: The Celluloid Princess from 1908- 1931” in David Holloway (ed.), Polemics: Essays in American Cultural and Historical Criticism, Volume 1 (Sheffield: Black Rock Press, 2004): 85-117.
• “Celebrating With The Last of the Mohicans: The Columbus Quincentenary and Neocolonialism in Hollywood Film.”  The Journal of American & Comparative Culture Vol. 25 no. 1 & 2 (Spring & Summer, 2002).
• Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in FIlmm (University Press of Kentucky 2006)