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2025 Research Symposium

Thursday April 10th & Friday April 11th 2025

9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

The Woman's Club of Evanston
1702 Chicago Ave
Evanston, IL 60201

This two day symposium will feature Indigenous community partnered project highlights, poster sessions, roundtables, keynote speakers, and panels.  There will be four panels with invited scholars.

symposium speakers with panel descriptions

CLICK HERE TO RSVP 

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

NETWORKING & WELCOME RECEPTION

Wednesday April 9, 2025
6 pm - 8 pm 
Block Museum of Art
Northwestern University 
40 Arts Cir Dr, Evanston, IL 60208 

You're invited! Please join the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research for a welcome reception on the evening of Wednesday, April 9, 2024. We will be gathering at the Block Museum of Art on the Northwestern University campus to network and connect with CNAIR community and early symposium arrivals. Heavy hors d'œuvre! Appetizers, desserts, and drinks! Free parking is available after 4 pm in the attached campus parking structures. Symposium schedule for Thursday and Friday and panels are below:

 

SCHEDULE 

Thursday April 10th, 2025 Friday April 11th, 2025

8:30 am: Breakfast and Registration

 

9:00 am: Welcome by Megan Bang, CNAIR Director, Land Acknowledgment - Kennedy Naseem and Olivia Bailey, NAISA Co-Chairs, Prayer and Song 

 

 9:30 am - 10:30 am: Keynote - Melissa Walls, (Anishinaabe), Co-Director, Center for Indigenous Health and Professor of American Health, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University 

 

10:30 am -12pm: Panel I: Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Integrating knowledges 

  • Moderator – Michael Turcios, Assistant Professor, Screen Cultures Program, Department of  Radio/Television/Film, School of Communication, Northwestern University
  • Ian Her Many Horses, (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Bethany Hughes, (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Assistant Professor, American Culture, University of Michigan
  • Diego Arispe-Bazán, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Faculty Fellow, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern University

12:00 pm - 1 pm:  Lunch

 

1 pm -1:30 pm:  Project Highlight:

The Ojibwe Muzzeniegun Digital Archive

Kelly Wisecup, Arthur E Andersen Teaching and Research Professor, Professor of English

 

1:30 pm -2:30 pm:  Elevating Indigenous Knowledge Exchange: Posters

Research Fellows, Faculty, Graduate students, Undergraduate students from Northwestern, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and local partnership institutions will be sharing and presenting their Indigenous focused work

 

2:30 pm - 3 pm: Networking Break (Coffee service/snack)

 

3 pm -4:30 pm:  Panel II: Maternal Health and the well-being of the next generation

  • Moderator – Melissa Walls, (Anishinaabe), Co-Director, Center for Indigenous Health and Professor of  American Health, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University
  • Deana Around Him (Cherokee Nation), Research Scholar for Indigenous Children, Youth and Families, Child Trends 
  • Camie Goldhammer (Sisíthuŋwaŋ-Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ Oyáte), founding executive director, Hummingbird Indigenous Family Services
  • Ninah Divine, Family Physician, Gerald Ignace Indian Health Center, Milwaukee, WI 

 8:30am: Breakfast and registration

 

 9:00 am -9:05 am: Welcome - Megan Bang, CNAIR Director 

 

9:05 am-10 am:  Keynote - Bryan Brayboy (Lumbee), Dean, Carlos Montezuma Professor of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University 

 

10 am -11:30 am Panel III: Economic Development: Eyes to the Future

  • Moderator – Colleen Echohawk (Upper Athabascan/Kithehaki Band of Pawnee), President, Headwater People Consulting, LLC
  • Shelly Tucciarelli (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), Executive Director, Visionary Ventures
  • Kelly Hallman (Cherokee Nation), Founder, Executive Director, Indigenous Justice Circle
  • Megan Minoka Hill (Oneida Nation of Wisconsin), Senior Director, Project on Indigenous Governance and Development Director, Honoring Nations, Ash Center for Democratic Governance, Harvard Kennedy School

11:30 am -12:30 pm: Elevating Indigenous Knowledge Exchange: Posters

Research Fellows, Faculty, Graduate students, Undergraduate students from Northwestern, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and local partnership institutions and organizations will be sharing and presenting their Indigenous focused work

 

12:30 pm -1:15 pm: LUNCH 

 

1:15 pm -1:45pm: Project Highlight: 

Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center (RISE)

Jacqueline Schram, Director, Northwestern University

 

1:45 pm -2 pm: Networking Break (Coffee service/snack)

 

2:00 pm -3:30 pm: Elevating Indigenous Knowledge Exchange: Roundtables

Research Fellows, Faculty, Graduate students, Undergraduate students from Northwestern, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and local partnership institutions and organizations will be sharing and presenting their Indigenous focused work

 

3:30 pm:  Closing remarks and reflection

 



 

FLYER

Download & print our flyer here!

color symposium flyer - click here to print PDF

Program Book

View the program book here

TBA

Elevating Tribal Knowledge Exchange: Honoring CNAIR Fellows, Affiliates, Community and Tribal College ScholarsĀ 

RESEARCH POSTERS, MINI PRESENTATIONS AND ROUND TABLESĀ 

Research Fellows, Faculty, Graduate students, Undergraduate students from Northwestern, Tribal Colleges and local partnership organizations will be sharing and presenting their Indigenous focused work

Thursday, April 10th

THURSDAY ELEVATING TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE SCHEDULE TBA

Friday, April 11th 

FRIDAY ELEVATING TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE SCHEDULE TBA