Welcome

Joanne M. Barker, Professor and Department Chair

Professor Joanne Barker

Welcome!

 

 

The mission of the American Indian Studies Department is to educate, inspire, and prepare students for engaging careers and/or graduate school and to be an educational hub and site for community participation and learning focused on the Indigenous peoples of the northern Americas.

News and Announcements

Empowering American Indian Studies

Fundraising Campaign 2022

The total raised through the campaign for the AIS Scholarship Fund, Concert Sponsorship, and Betty Parent Achievement Award is $9,930!

Thank you to all of our donors.

Rob Collins donated $200 to the Betty Parent Achievement Award

Jake and Barbara Perea donated $1,000 to the Betty Parent Award and $500 to the AIS Scholarship Award

Allam and Fidaa El Qadah donated $2,500 to the AIS Department Fund

Want to donate

The Cookbook

Art by Joanne Barker called Huckleberry Stream

American Indian Studies Journal (Call for Submissions) - American Indian Studies invites all members of its community to submit a recipe, creative work, or short essay on food for a cookbook. Submissions might include:

  • recipe
  • artwork
  • video to a music or dance performance
  • short story
  • short essay
  • community report on food sovereignty work

The cookbook will serve as the next issue of the American Indian Studies Journal. It will be provided free to the public through this page on the department website. Please send your submissions to jmbarker@sfsu.edu. WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS! As soon as we have enough, we will launch the cookbook.

New Publications

Joanne BarkerRed Scare: The State's Indigenous Terrorist (American Studies Now Series, UC Press, 2021).

Joanne Barker, Jodi Byrd, Alyosha Goldstein, and Sandy Grande, "Catastrophe, Care, and All that Remains,” Social Text (2021).

Robert Keith Collins, "African and Native American Contact in the Americas." Wednesday, November 17, 2021 (City of Menlo Park, 2021).

Robert Keith Collins, “How Did Black Folks Become Indians? What Lived Experiences Say About Belonging, Culture, and Racial Mixture in Native America.” In The Complexities of Race: Identity, Power, and Justice in an Evolving AmericaCharmaine Wijeyesinghe, ed. (NYU Press, 2021).

Roger J. Kuhn, “Sexual Sovereignty and Erotic Survivance: Two-Spirit Sexual Health and Vitality: An Intersectional Approach to Sex Therapy.” In Centering the Lives of Indigenous, Racialized, and People of Color. Reece M. Malone, Marla Renee Stewart, Mariotta Gary-Smith, and James C. Wadley, eds. (Routledge, 2022).

Roger Kuhn, “Two-Spirit Love at the BAAITS Powwow,” in Critical Sexual Literacy: Forecasting Trends in Sexual Politics, Diversity, and Pedagogy. Gilbert Herdt, Marzullo Michelle, Petite Nicole Polen, eds. (Anthem Press, 2021).

John-Carlos Perea, “Music in Native America: The Intertribal Powwow” (in Global Music Cultures, eds. Bonnie C. Wade and Patricia Sheehan Campbell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Paul Steward and his father, as the band Twice as Good, have released original music, which you can listen to: Double Down CD (2021). Video clip of Myanik Xe Twice As Good

Awards and Honors

CONGRATULATIONSSarah Dilley as been included on the Native American 40 Under 40 by The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.

CONGRATULATIONSRoger Kuhn has been appointed to the LGBTQ+ advisory committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

CONGRATULATIONSJohn-Carlos Perea's book chapter, "Native 'Noise' and the Politcs of Powwow Musicking in a University Soundscape," is part of an edited collection, Music and Modernity among First Peoples of North Americathat has won the 2020 Ellen Koskoff Prize for Edited Collections from the Society for Ethnomusicology.

Student Profiles

Cathi Manuel wearing cap and gown in front of SFSU monument sign

 

 

Cathi Manuel (Pit River/Modoc ~ Coastal Pomo/Miwok)

Class of 2020

B.A., American Indian Studies; B.A, Creative Writing (2020)

M.A. Ethnic Studies (2022)

I plan to pursue a doctorate in Ethnic Studies ~ emphasis on Native American Matriarchal Leadership in Social Justice and Community Activism. My work consists of research and oral history collectives, cultural art and Indigenous literature. Story Website.

Student Alum Kristi Lozinto standing with children in baseball uniforms

 

 

Kristi Lozinto (Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians)

B.S. Nutrition & Dietetics (SFSU 2020)

AIS Minor (SFSU 2020)

Currently working at Sonoma County Indian Health Project (SCIHP) part-time and a quarter of the way through a 1000 hour internship through Morrison Healthcare as part of the credentialing requirements to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN). Kristi is a single mom of 3 children ages 6, 8, and 11 who are all involved in multiple sports. They are of Dry Creek Pomo descent and are enrolled tribal members of the Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians. She and two of her children are traditional Pomo dancers. Kristi has worked at SCIHP for over 11 years and in that time found her passion for nutrition and helping her community so she decided to pursue a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics to become a RDN. She was accepted into the Morrison Healthcare Dietetic Internship program where she is working towards completing her internship where she will then be qualified to take the national exam to become a RDN. Kristi wants to continue serving her Native community in disease prevention and wellness through nutrition.

Carolina Osoria posing in a green dress

 

 

 

 

 

Carolina Osoria (Mestize: Wixarika)

B.A., American Indian Studies and Comparative and World Literature with a Minor in Queer Ethnic Studies (2022)

I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies. Much of my fieldwork is centered around sex, gender, and sexuality as I research lost cuir and trans representations within colonial literature. Additionally, through an intersection of cultural studies, literary analysis, and politics of translation, I bring together the fields of gender, sexuality, and Indigenous studies to the foreground in order to untangle the power dynamics of colonial, European, and binary epistemologies that have, and continue to be violently imposed onto Indigenous knowledge systems. I have written for, "The Ana" a quarterly arts magazine, presented poetry for Stanford GEN and Forest Hill, have presented their research at UC Davis' AIS Graduate Symposium, SFSU undergraduate symposium, and am a current fellow for the Marcus Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

Collage of Student Alum Cheyenne Garcia

 

 

Cheyenne Garcia (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe/Lakota, Tongva)

B.A. American Indian Studies (2021)

Currently, I am taking a year off from academics to study for the LSATs while working part-time at Trader Joe’s. Since graduating in the Summer of 2021, I have moved back to my hometown of San Diego. In October I got engaged to my partner of 4.5 years! I am taking this time off to focus on studying for the LSAT. My plan is to apply to CSULB, SDSU, & UCLA or USD in their dual degree program of a Masters in Social Work and Juris Doctorate degree (MSW/JD). Once I am settled in. I am looking forward to volunteering within my local Indigenous Community & building my resume for my application for Grad school. Ultimately, I would love to get a certification in American Indian Law and/or manage a non-profit organization that specializes in providing support & resources for Indigenous communities.