WOMEN’S COUNCIL OF INDIGENOUS DOCTORAL SCHOLARS presents:
2024 INDIGENOUS SCHOLAR SYMPOSIUM
Saturday, April 6, 2024
10:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. MST
Hayden Library Room #236, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Virtual Sessions via Zoom: https://asu.zoom.us/j/85220171727
Scan for digital program
This event is funded by the generosity of:
Sponsors:
Labriola National American Indian Data Center, ASU Library
Center for Indian Education
ASU Global Futures Laboratory Indigenous Knowledges
ASU Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA)
Office of American Indian Initiatives
Contributors:
ASU Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) Innovation Fellowship
The Lotus Rose
Empolvados Sweets.AZ
Bit’ahnii Designs
AGENDA OVERVIEW - Times are in MST
9:30 am - 10:00 am Check-in starts
10:00 am - 10:15 am Welcome
10:15 am - 11:15 am
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Research Networking Session
*Virtual Session available
Fireside Chat with Keynote Speaker, Madonna Thunder Hawk Room #204
*Virtual Session available
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Meal with Invited Faculty
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Faculty & Student Scholar-Activism Panel
*Virtual Session available
Closing Remarks and Mingle
10:00-10:15 AM MST -- Welcome
Emcee: Cecilia Marek (Diné, Nimiipuu, Hopi), Ph.D. Student, Gender Studies, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University; and Co-Founder and Council Delegate for the Women’s Council of Indigenous Doctoral Scholars
Opening prayer offered by members of WCIDS
Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
Introduction to the Women’s Council of Indigenous Doctoral Scholars
Welcome Remarks from:
● Jacob Moore, MBA, (Lakota/Dakota/Akimel O'odham/Tohono O’odham), Vice President and Special Advisor to the President on American Indian Affairs, Office of University Affairs, Arizona State University
● Dr. Marisa Duarte (Xicanx, Pascua Yaqui Tribe),Associate Professor, Justice and Social Inquiry, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
10:15-11:15 AM MST -- Research Networking Session
The Research Networking Session aims to create a space for Indigenous graduate students to connect, share their research interests, and discuss topics related to doctoral studies in various fields. Through speed networking-style rounds, participants will have the opportunity to meet and learn about the research of their peers. This session provides a platform for students at any stage of their doctoral journey to
2024 Indigenous Scholar Symposium - Program 3
network, seek advice, and build a supportive community. The session will conclude with a group share, allowing participants to reflect on their conversations and insights gained during the networking session.
Moderators: Name (Tribe, Tribe), Title, Program, School, University
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM MST -- Fireside Chat with Keynote Speaker Virtual Session Available
“Learning about Indigenous Activism: A Conversation with Madonna Thunder Hawk”
Introduction by: Annabell Bowen-Miller (Diné/Onöndowa’ga), Director - American Indian Initiatives, and Ph.D. Student, Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Transformation, Arizona State University
Moderator: Cecilia Marek (Diné, Nimiipuu, Hopi), Ph.D. Student, Gender Studies, School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University
Madonna Thunder Hawk is Oohenumpa Lakota from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. She is a long-time community organizer with a range of experience in American Indian rights protection, cultural preservation, economic development, environmental justice and Lakota social reclamation. In the late 1960s she became a leader in the American Indian Movement (AIM). While involved in the national and international arena for Native sovereignty, Madonna has anchored much of her organizing at the community level. In 1974, she established the "We Will Remember Survival School" for Indian youth whose parents were facing federal charges or who had been drop-outs or “push-outs” from the educational system.
She co-founded Women of All Red Nations (WARN) in 1978 and also helped organize the Black Hills Protection Committee (later the HeSapa Institute) whose goal is to protect the many sacred sites within the region's treaty lands. She has served as the tribal liaison for the Lakota People's Law Project, fighting the illegal removal of Native children from tribal nations into the state foster care system. More recently, Madonna established the Wasagiya Najin "Grandmothers' Group" on Cheyenne River Reservation to assist in rebuilding kinship networks and advocating for children. She currently works for the Red Road Institute, as their Director of Grassroots Organizing, and serves on Warrior Women Project's Matriarchs Council.
12:30-2:00 PM MST -- Lunch for in-person attendees
Lunch to follow the fireside chat. Lunch is catered by The Rez, An Urban Eatery
2:00-3:00 PM MST -- Faculty & Student Scholar-Activism Panel
Virtual Session Available
“Navigating the Role of Scholar-Activism in Indigenous Research”
The term “activism” encompasses a broad spectrum of activities ranging from organizing and mobilizing social movements to governmental and non-governmental relations as well as direct work within communities. For Indigenous scholars seeking to improve the lives of their tribal communities, activism often comes in the form of scholarship and a desire to center Indigenous voices within research to rewrite and reright narratives about Indigenous peoples that historically exploit and disparage them.1
This panel brings together Indigenous faculty and graduate students from a variety of disciplines to discuss the challenges and commitments of “scholar-activism”. Panelists will answer questions about how they navigate their roles as Indigenous researchers in and outside of academia, and offer their insights on potentialities and practical applications of scholar-activism within Indigenous research.
1 LindaTuhiwaiSmith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 2nd ed. (NewYork:ZedBooks:PalgraveMacmillan,2012),29.
2024 Indigenous Scholar Symposium - Program
Moderator: Alycia de Mesa (Apache of Chihuahua, Mexico), Ph.D. Candidate, Human & Social Dimensions of Science & Technology, ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Panelists include:
● Elisha Charley (Nihok’aa Diyin Dine’é; Navajo), Ph.D. Student, Urban Planning, School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning, Arizona State University
● Dr. Jerome Jeffery Clark (Diné), Assistant Professor, English & Indigenous Studies, School of Humanities, Arts, & Cultural Studies, Arizona State University
● Frida Espinosa Cárdenas (Transterritorial Mestiza Mexicana & Mother), PhD Candidate, Global Health, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
● Dr Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval (Caxcan/Xicanx/Izkalohteka), Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, Stanislaus State Scholar-Activist Panelists
Elisha Charley (Nihok’aa Diyin Dine’é; Navajo) is a Ph.D. Student in the Urban Planning program in the School of Geographical Science and Urban Planning at Arizona State University.
Her research includes Indigenous Planning centering Nihok’aa Diyin Dine’é (human walking on the surface; Navajo) and land use policies that impact access to housing under the fiduciary relationship between the U.S. Federal government and the Navajo Nation government.
She can be reached at echarle@asu.edu
Scholar-Activist Panelists
Dr. Jerome Jeffery Clark (Diné), is an Assistant Professor in English & Indigenous Studies in the School of Humanities, Arts, & Cultural Studies at Arizona State University.
His research interests are Indigenous futurism, Decolonization, and Diné Stories/Literature.
He can be reached at jerome.clark@asu.edu
Frida Espinosa Cárdenas (Transterritorial
Mestiza Mexicana & Mother) is a PhD Candidate in the Global Health PhD program in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University.
Her research interests center around birth justice. She implements community-driven research and decolonizing research methods to co-create a platform and uplift the work of culturally-rooted birthworkers (midwives and doulas) in Arizona and her ancestral homelands in Central Mexico.
She can be reached out fcespino@asu.edu
Scholar-Activist Panelists
Dr. Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno
Sandoval (Caxcan/Xicanx/Izkalohteka), is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies with an emphasis in Native American and Mexican Indigenous Studies at Stanislaus State.
They are passionate about the possibilities of activating decolonial ancestral identities as agents of change. They examine how ancestral knowledge systems can inform/be informed across three research studies: 1) Across California Native Landscapes, 2) Planting Son Jarocho/Fandango culture, and 3) Ancestral Computing for Sustainability
They can be reached at sandoval27@csustan.edu
3:15-4:00 PM MST --
Closing Remarks & Mingle
Closing remarks: J’Shon Lee (White Mountain Apache), Ph.D. Student, Learning, Literacies, and Technologies, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University
We invite you to hang out, mingle, and strengthen our community
Indigenous Scholar Symposium - Planning Committee:
Edwina Bailey (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Master's student, Addiction Psychology, ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Nicholet Deschine Parkhurst (Standing Rock Sioux, Diné), Ph.D. Student, Justice & Social Inquiry, ASU School of Social Transformation & Ph.D. Candidate, Critical Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University
Mirtha Garcia Reyes (Mexicana), Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology, ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change
J’Shon Lee (White Mountain Apache), Ph.D. Student, Learning, Literacies, and Technologies, ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Cecilia Marek (Diné, Nimiipuu, Hopi), Ph.D. Student, Gender Studies, ASU School of Social Transformation
Alycia de Mesa (Apache of Chihuahua, Mexico), Ph.D. Candidate, Human & Social Dimensions of Science & Technology, ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Heather Romero Mercieca (Caxcan), Ph.D. Student, Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
Heaven Sepulveda (Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community), Ed.D. Student, Leadership and Innovation, ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Women’s Council of Indigenous Doctoral Scholars - Council Delegates:
Mirtha Garcia Reyes (Mexicana), Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology, ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change
J’Shon Lee (White Mountain Apache), Ph.D. Student, Learning, Literacies, and Technologies, ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Cecilia Marek (Diné, Nimiipuu, Hopi), Ph.D. Student, Gender Studies, ASU School of Social Transformation
Alycia de Mesa (Apache of Chihuahua, Mexico), Ph.D. Candidate, Human & Social Dimensions of Science & Technology, ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Nicholet Deschine Parkhurst (Standing Rock Sioux, Diné), Ph.D. Student, Justice & Social Inquiry, ASU School of Social Transformation & Ph.D.
Candidate, Critical Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University
The Women’s Council of Indigenous Doctoral Scholars (WCIDS) supports and fosters Indigenous doctoral students at any stage of their PhD journey.
WCIDS is a graduate student organization based at Arizona State University but membership is open to all students.
Follow us online:
Instagram: @Indigedocscholars
Facebook:
@WomensCouncilofIndigenousDoctoralScholars