Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain

A Letter from your Academic Aunties

Erdanya Anderson

Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1604-8555

Rene L. Begay

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3650-4417

Erica (Samms) Hurley

Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5135-2223

Ranalda L. Tsosie

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT)

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3749-2747

Lani Tsinnajinnie

University of New Mexico (UNM)

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5408-740X

Mukhtara Ayòtéjú Adékúnbi Yusuf

IndigeLab Network

Katherine C. Crocker

University of Puget Sound

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7717-5771

Kristen Bos

University of Toronto

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4718-8561

Kelsey Leonard

University of Waterloo

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7531-128X

Dominique David-Chavez

Colorado State Univeristy

Kat Milligan-McClellan

University of Connecticut (UConn)

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8479-0809

Desi Small-Rodriguez

University of California, Los Angeles

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0544-5282

Sarah Aarons

University of California, San Diego

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3580-0820

Lydia Jennings

Dartmouth University

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9860-5574

Ximena Cid

California State University, Dominquez Hills

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2957-4341

Kathleen R. Johnson

University of California Irvine

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1291-198X

Rosie 'Anolani Alegado

University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3615-5613

Stephanie Russo Carroll

University of Arizona

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8996-8071

Max Liboiron

Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Andrea M. Gomez

University of California, Berkeley

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2923-6362

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Abstract

Academic institutions’ colonial practices and cultures continue to undermine and challenge Indigenous/Native methods for learning and knowledge creation. However, they are not enough to stop Indigenous academics from prevailing and prospering. In this letter to young Indigenous scholars, twenty Indigenous academics take up their roles as Aunties to answer the question: how do you navigate the power structures of academic institutions to build a career as an Indigenous academic? The letter re-frames common barriers and tensions experienced by Indigenous scholars as locations for creative solutions, community building, and joy while acknowledging the importance and weight of being a vessel for change. Topics include responsibility to community, tokenism, value-based research, imposter syndrome, accessibility, refusal, citational practices, advisors, committee work, and the sacredness of research practices. Transformation is possible and we hope this letter is a small contribution towards making junior Indigenous scholars’ processes through the academy lighter, smoother, and more connected.

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Author Biographies

Erdanya Anderson, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Erdanya Anderson (Kanien’kehá:ka and settler, she/her) is a Research Project Coordinator at the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR). She holds an MA in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and a BA from Western University. Her research interests include Indigenous research ethics guidelines and their intersection with the TCPS-2.

Rene L. Begay, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Rene Begay (Diné, Navajo) is a geneticist and public health researcher. She obtained her MS from CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus and her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a Senior Professional Research Assistant with the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health within the Colorado School of Public Health.

Erica (Samms) Hurley, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Erica (Samms) Hurley (Mi’kmaq, she/her) is from the west coast of Newfoundland. She is a registered nurse and an assistant professor with Memorial University Faculty of Nursing and cross appointed to the Humanities. Her work includes Indigenous health, heart health, healing/wellness, Indigenous women, Indigenous historical context, culture, and ceremony.

Ranalda L. Tsosie, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT)

Ranalda Tsosie (Diné, Navajo) is an Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science at NMT and the program director of the Environmental Science Program. Her research focuses on human exposures to anthropogenic contaminants (PFAS, microplastics, metals), Indigenous food sovereignty, and water resource management and policy in Indigenous and rural populations.

Lani Tsinnajinnie, University of New Mexico (UNM)

Lani Tsinnajinnie (Diné and Filipino from the community of Na’Neelzhiin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at UNM where they focus on water resources and watershed planning. Their expertise is in mountain and watershed hydrology, climate adaptation planning, and community-based watershed planning.

Mukhtara Ayòtéjú Adékúnbi Yusuf, IndigeLab Network

Mukhtara Ayòtéjú Adékúnbi Yusuf (Yoruba, they/them) is a designer, artist and researcher from Ibadan, Nigeria. Mukhtara creates at epistemological cross-roads, muddying binaries between science and the spiritual, conceptually centering ‘indigenous technology’ and ‘neo-animism’. They hold a BA from Dartmouth College, an MA in Communications and Media from UCSD and an MFA in Design from UT Austin.

Katherine C. Crocker, University of Puget Sound

Katherine Crocker (they/them; Kaw Nation of Oklahoma and settler) is an Assistant professor in Biology. Their research focuses on whether and how the environment experienced by an animal can impact the phenotypes of that animal’s descendants across generations. Additional interests include the evolutionary history of steroid hormones, and critical Indigenous philosophies of science.

Kristen Bos, University of Toronto

Kristen Bos (Red River Métis) is the co-director of the Technoscience Research Unit and an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Science and Technology Studies in the Historical Studies Department at the University of Toronto Mississauga, with a graduate appointment in Women and Gender Studies Institute.

Kelsey Leonard, University of Waterloo

Kelsey Leonard (Shinnecock, she/her) holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability and is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, where her research focuses on Indigenous Water justice and its climatic, territorial, and governance underpinnings

Dominique David-Chavez, Colorado State Univeristy

Dominique David-Chavez (she/her) draws from experience as a multicultural Caribbean Indigenous (Arawak Taíno) research scientist, educator, and community member in her scholarship. She directs the interdisciplinary Indigenous Land & Data Stewards Lab and is Assistant Professor of Indigenous Natural Resource Stewardship at Colorado State University’s Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Department.

Kat Milligan-McClellan, University of Connecticut (UConn)

Kat Milligan-McClellan (Inupiaq, she/her) is an Assistant Professor and microbiologist at UConn. Raised in Kotzebue Alaska, she uses an Alaskan fish, stickleback, to study host-microbe interactions to determine the extent that the host environment contributes to host-microbe interactions and how ecotoxicants affect the development of fish.

Desi Small-Rodriguez, University of California, Los Angeles

Desi Small-Rodriguez (Northern Cheyenne and Chicana, she/her) is an Assistant Professor of sociology and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the Executive Director of the Data Warriors Lab, co-founder of the U.S. Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network, and a founding member of the Global Indigenous Data Alliance.

Sarah Aarons, University of California, San Diego

Sarah Aarons (Iñupiaq, she/her) was born in and raised in Alaska. She is an Assistant Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego in 2019. Sarah’s research focuses on understanding and tracking earth surface processes as a function of a changing climate using chemistry

Lydia Jennings, Dartmouth University

Lydia Jennings (citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Yoeme) and Huichol (Wixáritari), she/her) is a microbiologist, environmental soil scientist, and Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College, and director of the Sovereign Soils Research Collaborative. Her research interests are in soil health, environmental data stewardship and science communication.

Ximena Cid, California State University, Dominquez Hills

Ximena Cid is a Chicana and Indigenous American physicist, physics educator and physics education researcher, and advocate for increasing diversity and supporting minority students in STEM and physics. She is currently a Professor and past Chair of the physics department at California State University, Dominquez Hills.

Kathleen R. Johnson, University of California Irvine

Kathleen Johnson (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, she/her), a Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California Irvine, specializes in paleoclimate and geochemistry research and directs the UCI CLIMATE Justice Initiative (CJI), a crossdisciplinary training program in community-based research for early-career STEM researchers.

Rosie 'Anolani Alegado, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

Rosie ‘Anolani Alegado (kanaka ʻōiwi and Ilocano, she/her) is a practitioner and Professor of Oceanography, and director of the Hawaiʻi Sea Grant Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She directs ME*E, an interdisciplinary ecology and evolution laboratory that investigates the microbiomes of Indigenous seascapes.

Stephanie Russo Carroll, University of Arizona

Stephanie Russo Carroll (Ahtna, Native Village of Kluti-Kaah, Alaska and Sicilian, she/her) directs the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance. She is Associate Professor, Public Health, and American Indian Studies Graduate Program; Assistant Research Professor, Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and its Native Nations Institute; and Affiliate Faculty in the College of Law.

Max Liboiron, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Max Liboiron (Michif/Red River Métis and settler, they/them) is a professor in Geography at Memorial University, where they direct the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR). CLEAR develops feminist and anti-colonial methodologies to study marine plastic pollution. They authored Pollution is Colonialism (2021) and co-authored Discard Studies: Systems, Wasting, and Power (2022).

Andrea M. Gomez, University of California, Berkeley

Born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Andrea Gomez (Laguna Pueblo and Chicana, she/her) is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley. She runs a lab focusing on neuroplasticity. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Genetics from New York University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Basel, Switzerland.