10th Annual AIIC Symposium: Land Back/Language Back

In pondering the lush promise of living languages, worlds, waterways and lands, this symposium will share conversations on Indigenous praxis on the survival and continuance of living worlds linked to living words through relationships to the land. With this theme, participants can locate these conversations in language (re)vitalization work, but these discussions are also open to many approaches in focusing on the Land Back imperative.

Keynote Speakers:
April 21 | Sweeney “Hawk” Windchief
Dr. Sweeney Windchief (Fort Peck Assiniboine) is an Associate Professor in Department of Education at Montana State University who specializes in Indigenous Methodologies and Critical Race Theory in Education. Dr. Windcheif’s research is on the critical examination of race in higher education, leadership development in tribal colleges and universities (TCU’s), Indigenous peoples and higher education. Dr. Wichief’s teaching areas are Higher Education Leadership, Law and Policy and Higher Education, Theoretical Foundations of College Students, Critical Race Theory, Indigenous Methodologies.

April 22 | Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner
Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner (she/hers) is Payómkawichum (Luiseño) and Kuupangaxwichem (Cupeño) and a first-generation descendant of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians. Meissner is an assistant professor of philosophy at Georgetown University who specializes in Indigenous philosophy, feminist and non-western epistemology, and philosophy of language. Meissner researches, consults, publishes, and teaches on Indigenous research methodologies, language reclamation, epistemic and linguistic sovereignty, climate justice, Indigenous feminisms, and critical Indigenous interventions in social work.

April 23 | Beth Rose Middleton Manning
Beth Rose Middleton Manning (Afro-Caribbean, Eastern European) is a Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis. Beth Rose’s research centers on Native environmental policy and Native activism for site protection using conservation tools. Her broader research interests include intergenerational trauma and healing, Native land stewardship, rural environmental justice, Indigenous analysis of climate change, Afro-indigeneity, and qualitative GIS. Beth Rose received her B.A. in Nature and Culture from UC Davis, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley. Her first book, Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation (University of Arizona Press 2011), focuses on Native applications of conservation easements, with an emphasis on conservation partnerships led by California Native Nations.

Keynote Panel:
April 23 | Arkotong Longkumer, Liudmila Nikanorova, Bjørn Ola Tafjord, and Greg Johnson
Arkotong Longkumer is a Senior Lecturer in Modern Asia at the University of Edinburgh.
Liudmila Nikanorova, Open University UK, is a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Bjørn Ola Tafjord is a Professor, the Study of Religions in Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, Norway.
Greg Johnson is a Professor of Religious Studies and Director, Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life at UC Santa Barbara.

For more information and to register, please visit the symposium website

Sponsored by the IHC’s American Indian and Indigenous Collective Research Focus Group (AIIC RFG); College of Letters & Science: Bren School of Environmental Science & Management; Walter Capps Center; Environmental Studies Program; Department of English; Gevirtz Graduate School of Education; Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Department of Feminist Studies; Department of History of Art and Architecture; Global Latinidades Project; Hull Professor and Chair of Women’s Studies Program; Literature and Environment Research Initiative; Graduate Division; UCSB Graduate Student Association; UCSB Office of Equal Opportunity & Discrimination Prevention; Department of Religious Studies; Department of Linguistics; and Department of History.