Where We Stand: Tribal Nation-Building, Eurocentric Academies, and the Interrelationship of Place and Space

• In Event: Naming the Past, Reclaiming the Present in Higher Education

Abstract

We use the theoretical concept of Tribal Nation Building in higher education (Brayboy et al., 2012) to examine the experiences of faculty at public universities who led research and programs with Native Nations across the U.S. The data draws from thirty-five attendees of a 2020 Tribal Nation Building in Higher Education Convening (TNBHE) where Indigenous and non-Indigenous higher education faculty and administrators members participated in a 3-day convening. Pre-convening qualitative survey data is analyzed to glean insight into how faculty navigate, confront, and transform settler-colonial systems to support tribal nation building. Findings offer ways higher education must prioritize investment in Indigenous faculty and bolster Indigenous-centered curriculum to repay the debt on Native well-being and engage in truth-telling in public education.

Authors

• Vanessa Anthony-Stevens, University of Idaho
  Presenting Author

• Philip Stevens, University of Idaho
  Presenting Author