The American Indian Studies Department at UNCP will partner with the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona to host ‘We Still Remain,’ a conference focused on the promotion of Southeast indigenous research, scholarship and collaboration.
The two-day virtual conference scheduled for March 25-26 will gather indigenous and non-indigenous students and scholars from education, social sciences, STEM and humanities to examine areas of tension in research affecting Southeast indigenous communities.
The event will be co-hosted by Drs. Mary Ann Jacobs, chair and associate professor of the American Indian Studies Department and Danielle Hiraldo, senior researcher at the Native Nations Institute. UNCP alumnae Hannah Goins, a second-year law student at the University of Arizona, will assist in coordinating the conference and developing outputs.
This opportunity was made possible through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Dear Colleague Letter: Build and Broaden: Enabling New Social, Behavioral and Economic Science Collaborations with Minority-Serving Institutions. Jacobs and Hiraldo see this partnership as a way for two minority-serving institutions that have experience with engaging Native communities to highlight an Indigenous population that is often forgotten in Native studies.
“The We Still Remain Conference came out of a desire to really address the research knowledge that tribes and tribal communities need right now,” Jacobs said, “The pandemic has underscored the need to better understand tribal communities in forgotten places like the Southeast. We are the indigenous people who remained in the Southeast. We should be at the forefront of shaping the research that is done about and for us.”
The conference will host virtual interactive sessions in which we seek to promote a deeper understanding of Southeast (SE) Indigenous Studies; encourage the research interests of underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in SE Indigenous Peoples and communities; increase the knowledge of SE Indigenous Peoples and the research and education programming happening in their communities; and support early career and senior scholars in their research development.
The best way to achieve these objectives is to hear from the people who are actively making change in their communities. Who better to help guide the content development, programming, and evaluation than those who are living and working in these communities? To assist in this effort, a local host committee has been established. The members include: Dr. Tracie Locklear (Lumbee/Coharie), research assistant professor, North Carolina Central University; Aiyana Lynch (Haliwa Saponi), undergraduate student at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Dr. Ashley McMillan (Lumbee), American Indian liaison to the chancellor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke; and Greg Richardson (Haliwa Saponi), executive director of North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs.
“We are so excited to work with this accomplished group of Native leaders and look forward to their insights,” Goins added.
For additional conference information, visit http://nni.arizona.edu/wsrc.
