Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Fourteenth Annual Conference

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA, USA

JUNE 26-28, 2025

WELCOME AND CONFERENCE THEME: ROOTS AND ORIGINS

As we gather in the region where NAISA was conceived, our 2025 conference will explore the theme of “Roots and Origins.” This theme invites participants to reflect on the foundational aspects of Native American and Indigenous Studies, to consider the origins of our field, and to engage with the deep-rooted histories and traditions that shape Indigenous Peoples locally and globally today.

We respectfully acknowledge that the land on which Oklahoma City is situated in the ancestral and contemporary homelands of numerous Indigenous nations. The first peoples of the Oklahoma City region include several Indigenous nations, primarily the Plains Apache, Wichita, and Caddo peoples, including the Taovaya and Tawakoni of the Wichita confederation.

Oklahoma is home to 39 Native Nations, and many others who have stewarded and lived in these lands for generations. We honor the enduring connection that these nations have to the region, their sovereignty, and their ongoing contributions to life in Oklahoma. We recognize the historical and ongoing impacts of colonization and commit to supporting Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. 

DEADLINE AND NEW CHANGES FOR 2025

The NAISA Council invites all persons working in Native American and Indigenous Studies to submit proposals for: Individual papers, panel sessions, roundtables, or creative works/film screenings. We welcome proposals from faculty and students in colleges, universities, and tribal colleges; from community-based scholars and elders; and from professionals working in the field. We particularly encourage graduate students to submit as well as proposals relating to Indigenous community-driven scholarship. 

The extended deadline for proposal submissions is Friday, November 1st, 11:59 pm EST (GMT 5). Only complete proposals submitted through the online Abstract Collector before the deadline will receive consideration.

Please read the Instructions for Preparing Proposals carefully before submitting your proposals. The proposal submission guidelines can be found here. 

For 2025, the Program Committee is instituting several new changes to the submission and review process:

• NAISA Council will recruit volunteers from the association membership to read and score proposals. This change will facilitate broader and more diverse inclusion of relevant scholarship; as in previous years, final decision on program admission rests with the NAISA Council.
• Submissions that do not follow the following three requests may be disqualified from consideration:
  • Submitters will be asked to name one or more themes to accompany their submission, to more easily track the program’s representation of all corners of the field.
  • For informational purposes, submitters will be asked to describe their relationship to Indigenous communities, with respect for the high level of diversity of forms of belonging all around the world. As in previous years, one need not be Indigenous to present at NAISA. These questions help the review committee evaluate the ethics and transparency of the proposal’s research methods. See “Review Criteria,” below.
  • Submitters will be asked to clearly identify several components of their proposals. 

As in previous years, multiple appearances on the Program are allowed; see additional details below.

All those accepted to the program must join or renew NAISA membership by March 1, 2025 and must register for the conference. For information on the tiers of membership, go to the NAISA membership page. Registration for the conference will be available in early 2025 at the official website of the NAISA 2025 Oklahoma City conference: Please note that many sections of the conference website will be filled as we draw closer to the conference.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

NAISA is interdisciplinary and global, and the Program Committee welcomes a very broad range of topics and approaches. If prior Programs have not included your area or topic, please do not be discouraged from submitting a proposal. NAISA is always working to expand our coverage of issues of import to Indigenous Studies and to Indigenous peoples. Community-driven research is encouraged. We encourage submissions that stretch across geographic areas and disciplines, as well as cross-institutional research partnerships.

Conference Themes

In consultation with the 2025 Local Host Committee, NAISA welcomes proposals that include one or more of the following themes:

• Health and Indigeneity
• Indigenous Education
• Climate Change and Native Lands
• Indigenous Languages
• Policy, Law, and Governance
• Authoritarianism and Settler Colonialism
• Cultural Heritage and Preservation
• Historical Methods
• Indigenous Economies 
• Creativity
• Performance and Visual Art
• Film and Visual Culture
• Media and Technology
• Race and Racialization
• Gender and Sexuality
• The Body
• Critical University Studies
• Scholarship on Teaching and Learning

 Your research may not fit into one of these themes, and that is ok! Please submit.

Hybrid/Online Options

Unfortunately, NAISA does not have the resources to support virtual access for conference participants, and OKC2025 cannot provide a hybrid meeting that fully supports the quality experience of both online and in-person attendees and presenters. If your proposal is accepted, please plan to travel to Oklahoma City and support our Local Host Committee and local Native nations. Travel grants are available and will be announced on the NAISA website when registration opens.

The “Multiple Appearances” Rule 

In the past, each person could be part of only one proposal of any kind and could therefore participate in only one session. For OKC 2025, a person may present a paper (or participate in a roundtable or creative works session) once only in the program but can appear in a second role as chair or commentator (discussant) in a second session. As in the past,

(1) Someone may propose to present; both Chair and present; or Chair and comment, within one session; OR 

(2) Someone may organize a panel in which s/he does not have an active role and can present a paper or chair/comment in another session; OR 

(3) Someone may submit an individual paper proposal OR be included as a presenter in a panel, roundtable, or creative works session AND can chair OR comment in a second session. 

As always, a person cannot propose to present twice – in any combination of individual paper, paper in a panel, or participation in a roundtable or creative works/film session. In addition to submitting proposals, members can volunteer to chair one of the panels created by the Program Committee from individual paper proposals. The Program Committee may recruit panel chairs and commentators from people on successful proposals.