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Research Hubs

Global Indigeneities

The Global Indigeneities hub engages historical and contemporary expressions of indigeneity, including questions of identity, place, education, and human rights. Indigenous methodologies are central to this work, which is focused on intellectual, expressive, and spiritual traditions, and individual and tribal histories. This research is collectively global, moving across North and South America to the Pacific; it is rooted in specific places even as it examines the mobility of Indigenous peoples and expressions across the globe.

Affiliated Faculty:  Megan Bang, Geraldo L. Cadava, Jorge Coronado, Janet Dees, Doug Kiel, Patty Loew, Hirokazu Miyazaki, Nitasha Tamar Sharma, Kimberly Marion Suiseeya, Mary Weismantel, Kelly Wisecup

Nationhood, Law, & Governance

Nationhood, Law, & Governance foregrounds Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty as members of autonomous nations by studying the legal structures, activism, and forms of governance that have characterized Indigenous nationhood and politics as well as Indigenous nations’ relations to one another and to settler nation states. This hub studies and contributes to policies and actions that strengthen tribal nations, enterprises, and people across many places and contexts.

Affiliated Faculty: Geraldo L. Cadava, Scott Garton, Josh Honn, Doug Kiel, Patty Loew, Beth Redbird, Beatriz O. Reyes, Kimberly Marion Suiseeya

Environments, Health & Social Welfare

This hub is positioned at the intersection of issues affecting the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities.  Data-driven and community engaged research focuses on bodily, emotional, intellectual, and economic health and its relations to historical trauma, cognition, policy, education, and environment.  Our work ranges from studies of traditional ecological knowledge and climate change activism to comprehensive statistical analyses of housing inequalities and education policy collaborations.  We support Indigenous health and remain attentive to traditional environmental knowledge and the consequences of climate change, toxic sites, and resource extraction on Indigenous lands.

Affiliated Faculty:  Geraldo L. Cadava, Scott Garton, Josh Honn, Doug Kiel, Patty Loew, Beth Redbird, Beatriz O. Reyes, Kimberly Marion Suiseeya

Communities, Culture & Activism

This hub takes up social justice, activism, and cultural productions, from music, visual art, and language revitalization to local and global advocacy, film, and literature.  Our focus on community allows us to collaborate with groups that have emerged out of shared interests and political goals, experiences of relocation or displacement, and mutual interests in digital technologies. Our research engages and supports interconnected urban, rural, suburban, and reservation communities, and we work with those communities on activist, creative, curatorial, and ethnographic projects.

Affiliated Faculty: Megan Bang, Janet Dees, Jack Doppelt, Scott Garton, Josh Honn, Doug Kiel, Patty Loew, Beatriz O. Reyes, Ramón Rivera-Servera, Nitasha Tamar Sharma, Kimberly Marion Suiseeya, Kelly Wisecup