What's Next?: Indigenous Methods for Indigenous Futures
Panel Host - Dr. Sandy Grande
Sandy Grande, author of Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought, will be hosting an Indigenous Methodologies panel with Valerie Shirley (Diné) and Janene Yazzie (Diné). In this session, panelists will discuss the relevance of the current political climate, that includes but is not limited to, the recent elections, the surge in anti-Black violence and subsequent protests, and the COVID19 pandemic, on Indigenous peoples and communities. More specifically, panelists will discuss how this context shapes and animates their on the ground work, focusing on how Indigenous methodologies work to build and sustain Indigenous futures.
About the Series: These virtual sessions will highlight the ongoing work of Native researchers and scholars. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from Indigenous people working in fields such as Ethno-botany, Educational Studies, History, and Anthropology.
Tickets for this event are no longer available. Thank you for your support, please check back for future Abbe Museum programs in the new year.
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Panel Participants:
Sandy Grande
Sandy Grande is a Professor of Political Science and Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Connecticut with affiliations in American Studies, Philosophy, and the Race, Ethnicity and Politics program. Her research and teaching interfaces Native American and Indigenous Studies with critical theory toward the development of more nuanced analyses of the colonial present. She was recently awarded the Ford Foundation, Senior Fellowship (2019-2020) for a project on Indigenous Elders and aging. Her book, Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought was published in a 10th anniversary edition and a Portuguese translation is anticipated to be published in Brazil in 2021. In addition to publishing numerous articles and book chapters, she is a founding member of New York Stands for Standing Rock, a group of scholars and activists that forwards the aims of Native American and Indigenous sovereignty and resurgence. As one of their projects, they published the Standing Rock Syllabus. In addition to her academic and organizing work, she has provided eldercare for her parents for over ten years and remains the primary caregiver for her 92-yr. old father.
Valerie Shirley
Valerie Shirley (Diné) is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Education at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Dr. Shirley is the Director of the Indigenous Teacher Education Program (ITEP) at UArizona where she prepares Native American teacher candidates. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from Purdue University and M.S. degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Upon receiving her B.A. degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University, she taught in two elementary schools located in two Native communities in Arizona.
Janene Yazzie
Janene Yazzie is an entrepreneur, community organizer and Indigenous rights and human rights advocate. She has worked on climate change, water security, food security, broadband development, energy development, and nation building with Indigenous communities for the past eleven years. She served as a research associate on several studies looking at the impacts of environmental contamination on Indigenous communities in New Mexico and Arizona, such as the Puerco Valley and LCR Uranium study led by Dr. Tommy Rock of Northern Arizona University, and the Gold King Mine Spill study led by Dr. Karletta Chief of the University of Arizona. She is program manager of Sustainable Community Development with the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC). She also represents IITC as the co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group (IPMG) to the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. She served as the co-founder and senior planner of the Little Colorado River Watershed Chapters Association and co-founder of the Puerco Valley Uranium Task Force. She serves on several boards and advisory boards for organizations working on food sovereignty, water security, climate change, human rights and land rights nationally and internationally. Because of her experience she is recognized as an expert in developing rights-based approaches to development issues.
