Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

August 26, 2025 Nagpra And Tribal Relations Committee Meeting Minutes, Bryan Morey

University NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee

August 26, 2025 minutes for the WKU NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee meeting. Meeting conducted via Zoom.

Shifting From Damage Towards Desire At History Colorado: An Exploratory Case Study, Amanda Cali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the paradigm shift within the fields of anthropology and museum studies away from decolonization and towards indigenization through a case study of the changes in museological practices of the History Colorado Center in Denver, Colorado, and one of its community museums, the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose, Colorado. This thesis examines the changes in consultation and collaboration, the care and stewardship of collections, the implementation of the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials (PNAAM), and co-curation of exhibits. This thesis looks at the paradigm shift as a movement away from “damage-based research” within communities to “desire-centered research” …

When Culture Becomes Law: Mayan Heritage And The New Constitutional Recognition Of Collective Rights In Mexico, José Israel Herrera, Victor Manuel Colli Ek

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. The constitutional reform of September 30, 2024 to article 2 marks a substantive change in the recognition of indigenous peoples as subjects of public law, with their own patrimony, valid normative systems and express right to conserve, protect and develop their cultural, material and immaterial heritage. This article analyzes the legal implications of this reform in the context of the Maya people, especially with regard to collective intellectual property, the right to prior consultation and the constitutional recognition of bioculturality. A critical reading of the new normative framework is proposed, with emphasis on its transformative potential for the territorial …

Extractivism And Water Crisis In The Moroccan Draa Oasis: Global South Reflections On Responsibility And Resistance, Ahmed El Khatabi

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. The Draa Oasis in southeastern Morocco is experiencing severe water scarcity, driven by climate change and intensified by the expansion of watermelon agribusiness and desert tourism. This article explores how external investors, empowered by national agricultural policies, have disrupted traditional water governance systems rooted in collective management. Through ethnographic fieldwork involving interviews, focus groups, and spatial mapping, the study examines the socio-environmental consequences of groundwater depletion and land commodification. It argues that investors fail to assume ethical accountability for the ecological degradation they cause, despite being aware of the oasis’s fragile ecosystem. Meanwhile, local communities and civil society actors …

Vulnerabilidad Socioambiental A Inundaciones En Dos Humedales De San Cristóbal De Las Casas, Chiapas, México, Ender Fabian Toledo Alcázar, Salvador Adame Martínez, Marcelino García Benítez

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract

This study encompasses the following urban wetlands: "La Kisst," situated in the city center, and "María Eugenia," located in the southern part of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas. There are four wetlands within the municipality, all of which have been protected as natural areas by a Ramsar decree since 2008. The research aims to assess the socio-environmental vulnerability of the two wetlands using indicators in the environmental, social, and legal dimensions, thereby establishing the degree of vulnerability of the urban population exposed to flooding. The methodological process is defined by the proposal of CENAPRED, which establishes …

Living Heritage, Resilience And Ethically Informed Infrastructures In Malawi, Martha B. Lerski, Frank Puluputu Mwale

Publications and Research

Rooted in a rural community’s needs, this paper explores how historically, and ethically informed infrastructures can support community engagement towards identification, documentation, and dissemination of local, traditional, and indigenous knowledge relating to climate change. The paper examines climate adaptation and sustainability issues through the lenses of community organizing and Library & Information Science best practices. It draws on a growing body of literature identifying a role for expanded epistemological and subject discipline perspectives. While the impacts of climate on material culture are increasingly recognized, intangible, and biocultural heritage have not received as much attention. Living heritage traditions and knowledge systems …

E Ho’Omau Mākau, We Will Continue: The Living Sovereign Entities Of Contemporary Hawaiian Songs, Kēhaulani Lagunero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between contemporary Hawaiian mele (songs) and Hawaiian ea (sovereignty), focusing on how mele acts as sovereign living entities representing cultural resilience, identity, and resistance to settler-colonial influences. Through semi-structured interviews with Kānaka Maoli, participant observation at cultural events, and close analysis of mele, I identify that these songs are not only expressions of cultural memory, but also living embodiments of ea—sovereignty because they are alive, and they are alive because they are ea. Drawing from the frameworks of cultural survival, survivance, symbolic power, and defiant indigeneity, I explore how mele actively engage …

Arts-Based Sustainability: From New York To Malawi, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Recognizing that libraries serve multiple constituencies and subject areas, this chapter documents and advocates for development of transdisciplinary arts-based research (ABR) and culture-related projects linked to environmental challenges. Libraries contribute collections and spaces, as well as the research of library and information scientists. Libraries are currently among invisible contributors to sustainability planning and services. The chapter will link this invisibility to the value of what visual arts refer to as negative space elements in subjects ranging from traditional ecological knowledge to environmental science. Library collections, projects, and research contribute to education for sustainable development (ESD) as required to achieve the …

Matthew Kinnard, Matthew A. Kinnard M.S., Ph.D.

We Are NIH Oral History Project

No abstract provided.

Considering The Need For Congruence In Closing The Gap, Target 10: Reducing High Rates Of Adult Aboriginal Incarceration, Jane Anderson, Narelle Carroll, Boobaditj (Also Known As Phillip Ugle)

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

The federal and Western Australia (WA) state governments have made a national commitment to reducing high rates of Aboriginal adults held in incarceration, using, respectively, justice reinvestment and bureaucratic inclusion of Aboriginal representatives and organisations. This aspiration is also being pursued by an Aboriginal team who seek to establish a place-based Aboriginal justice support service in a WA regional town. The proposed service is underpinned by a combination of justice reinvestment and restorative justice principles and aims to use peer support workers who will effectively increase community agency in justice matters. This article examines congruence between federal, state and local …

Proceedings Of The 12th Research Symposium At Mammoth Cave National Park, Pat Kambesis Editor, Lee Anne Bledsoe Editor, Ana K. Celis Editor

Mammoth Cave Research Symposia

Proceedings of the 12th Research Symposium at Mammoth Cave National Park: Celebrating 100 Years of Scientific Research & Resource Management in the Mammoh Cave Region.

Les Blattes Orgueilleuses, Siham Amraoui

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

Amazigh Lexical Substrate In Tunisian Derja: An Outcome Of Linguistic Contact On Youtube And Facebook, Soubeika Bahri

Journal of Amazigh Studies

Despite the extensive discussion of the structural and lexical impact of Tamazight on North African spoken varieties in Morocco, Algeria, and Libya (Berkai 4-14; Souag 2018, 192-200; Faizi 29-39; Bensoukas and Boudlal 179-21; Zellou 1-13), little is known about the linguistic contact outcome between the Tunisian spoken variety (henceforth, Ettounsi or Tunisian Derja) and Tamazight. In this article, we present and analyze Amazigh linguistic substrate examples in the lexicon of Ettounsi. Contact-induced change (Lafkioui 51-93; Thomason 339-46; Heine and Kuteva, 529-72) and language contact on YouTube (Garley, 77-106), along with the method of computer-mediated discourse (Androutsopoulos, 419-438), offer …

Enjeux De Contacts De Langues Et D’Oralitures Dans Les Noms D’Ogresse Dans La Kabylie Des Babors, Massinissa Garaoun

Journal of Amazigh Studies

La Kabylie des Babors est une région montagneuse littorale située au nord-est de l’Algérie. Trois langues amazighes y sont pratiquées : la tabǧawit (ou kabyle oriental), la taɛemmuct (ou chaoui des Amouchas) et la tasaḥlit. L’une des figures majeures du conte amazigh et nord-africain est l’ogresse (Farès). Celle-ci est décrite comme une créature féminine, vivant seule ou en famille, isolée des Hommes et pouvant se nourrir de ces derniers. À partir d’un corpus de contes recueillis auprès de femmes originaires de différentes confédérations des Babors depuis 2017, j’ai rassemblé les dénominations ainsi que les principales caractéristiques attribuées aux ogres …

Hybridity In Amazigh Language, Culture, And Literature, Jas Editorial Staff

Journal of Amazigh Studies

N/A

A Raced Theology Of The Human Person: An Expanded Theological Anthropology, Cary W. Dabney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on race as a critical, yet largely unaddressed, topic in Catholic theological anthropology. In Catholic colleges and universities that are recognized as members of the Cardinal Newman Society, theological concerns about race are deemed irrelevant for theological education in the faith and are altogether absent from the theology of the human person. As a result, this collection of institutions treats race as a specialty within pastoral theology, one that is significant to groups, but not a part of the fundamental theology of the human person. This ‘un-raced’ theological anthropology results in the institution’s inability to respond effectively …

The Coso Paradox: An Additional Perspective Of Indigenous Identity, Leeanna Sueno

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

The Coso Mountain Range in Inyo County, California is an archaeological site rich with evidence of human interactions throughout prehistory. One of the most striking features is Coso’s abundance of rock art, estimated at over 100,000 etchings, with over half depicting Ovis canadensis (Bighorn Sheep). Coso’s rock art has been long-debated as a site of “shamanistic” prevalence, including vision quests, rain god worship , and interpretations of fertility. While spirituality is an integral part of many Indigenous cultures, it is highly unlikely that such a mass creation spanning hundreds of years and multiple cultural groups would be solely spiritual.

Fugitive Colors, Natalie Rose Eddings

Theses and Dissertations

My objects are meditations on intertwining themes of labor, rest, and interiority and their shadow sides—power, subjugation and the gaze. I couple materials that have millenia-long histories such as metals, glass, paper and clay with found objects and plat materials to illustrate narratives and exhume memories. Drawn from nature and technologies of land, plant stewardship and the domestic realm, I imagine my sculptures as life supporting vessels or magical enclosures.

Through sculpture, photography and printmaking, I build structures that are space of quiet to be filled with thought, healing and development. Like incubators and seed pods, my work is protective …

Recognizing Injustice, Reclaiming Voices: Establishing A Missing Persons Database For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women And Children In Nebraska, Bayly W. Watson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Indigenous people have been the victims of harsh persecution since the time of colonization; this has negatively impacted Native communities and has contributed significantly to the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children (MMIWC) across the United States and Canada. Under Legislative Bill 154, Richards et al. (2021) conducted an initial study to identify missing Native cases in Nebraska and in 2023, the Attorney General appointed a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Liaison to help combat the number of missing Indigenous in the state. This thesis contributes to previous research by analyzing 20,049 reports from three …

Global Nomads: Identity And Belonging In Third Culture Kids And Adult Third Culture Kids, Vallon Bucayu-Lee

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone examines the subculture of Third Culture Kids and Adult Third Culture Kids who have experienced living abroad as children. There were two main objectives in this study. First, to understand the perceptions of Adult Third Culture Kids on how their global childhoods have impacted their self-identity and sense of belonging as adults. Secondly, to understand the opinions of Adult Third Culture Kids on transitional programs through their personal experiences with them. The methodology of this capstone included a twelve-question survey distributed to seventeen Adult Third Culture Kids born in six different countries around the world. The questions in …

Kentucky History Is Native History: Decolonizing Native Portrayals In Kentucky Museums., Mandala Gupta Verwiebe

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Utilizing prominent decolonial museums scholarship, interviews conducted with anthropology and museum professionals, and Kentucky museum exhibitions, this research explores the history of Kentucky’s public institutions’ Indigenous representation and recommends guidelines to improve their portrayal of Native people. Through a historical analysis, this research finds factors that influence Kentucky institutions’ portrayals of Native history, such as early harmful grave looting of Indigenous ancestral remains, the prominence of the Myth of the Dark and Bloody Ground, and a weakened state governmental Native American Heritage Commission. After considering both decolonial theory and the experiences of Kentucky heritage professionals, this research recommends three methods …

The Commodification Of Native American Remains: The Use Of Native American Remains Within Educational Institutions And The Implementation Of Nagpra, Molly Nowak

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Indigenous communities have been commodified within educational institutions such as museums, universities, and governmental agencies throughout American history. Unethical collection practices have allowed for a disproportionate representation of Indigenous remains and materials within educational institutions. Indigenous bodies, funerary objects, religious materials, and other important cultural materials have been stolen from their communities and used for scientific discovery and education. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), passed in 1990, created legal protections for Indigenous graves and remains and instigates the return of the stolen materials. This project reviews the historical contexts behind the collection of Indigenous remains, the …

The Politics Of The Black Womb: How Education And Power Reinforce The U.S. Black Maternal Health Crisis, Foluke Akinkunmi

Honors Scholar Theses

This study investigates the alarming maternal mortality rates among Black women in the U.S. today first by exploring the historical exploitation of Black maternal bodies during enslavement and with the rise of professionalized gynecology. It challenges the narrative that attributes these outcomes to individual choices or supposedly inherent biological factors, arguing instead that the devaluing of Black women’s well-being and authoritative knowledge have been constructed along with the United States itself. To advance a constructive response, the paper analyzes curriculum competencies for obstetric and midwifery healthcare providers, surveys of Black women's birthing experiences in the previous 20 years, and interviews …

Pedro Aceves Mfa Thesis, Pedro M. Aceves

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My Work is about looking at Cruising through a queer decolonial lens. Using multiple mediums such as photo, glass, Augmented reality, and film, I explore these queer histories and aesthetics through not just an anthropological approach but also an artistic epistemological approach weaving together narratives of prehispanic and modern queer Latinidad.

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Connection, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2025 Talisman:

• Alali, Cecilia & Ragan Harrington. Connection
• Hardesty, Emma. On a Roll – Dungeons & Dragons
• Muscutt, Carson. Grinding Through Life – Molotov Skateshop
• Cox, Kate. Stopwatch
• Harrington, Ragan. 1 Campus, 7 Strangers – Logan Hesse, Nicholas Basile, Spencer Winterbottom, Alliyah Jones, Alex Gehring, Annie McClurg, Rowan Finley
• Vickers, Abigail. Forged in Combat – Mixed Martial Arts
• Wood-Morris, Oli. Survivors to Neighbors – Bosnian Refugees
• Jordan, Shylin. Severed Roots
• Bivens, Emily. Behind the Screen – Social Media
• Dean, Clarissa. Shear Talent – Shake Rag Barbershop
• Sutton, Avery. For the Love of the Old – Thrift Shopping
• Phelps, Maggie. …

April 24, 2025 Nagpra And Tribal Relations Committee Meeting Minutes, Bryan Morey

University NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee

April 24, 2025 minutes for the WKU NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee meeting. Meeting conducted via Zoom.

Freedom Lyrics, Lily Allan

The Civil Rights Movement (HIS/BLS 347) Zine Project

No abstract provided.

Res Historica, Volume 4, Lynneth Miller Renberg Phd, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta

Res Historica

The 2025 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg, Samuel Sanders, and Julia Ackerman. The cover art for this volume is an open access image.

Incarcerated Adolescence: Historical Archaeology And Finding Teenagers In The Japanese American Concentration Camp, Jack Kendall

Student Publications

Through looking at the teenagers of the Granada Relocation Center, commonly called Amache, this research posits a unique framework to understanding and searching for teenagers in the past. This uses a combination of historical sources and oral histories in order to outline what materials to search for. This research also uses an emotional approach, titled an "archaeology of the heart" to understand and work alongside descendants to properly understand the nuance of the forced relocation of 110,000 Japanese Americans through World War II. By combining these different elements, this research shows the ways that teenagers were constructing and reconstructing a …

Los Muxes De Juchitán: Resistance, Identity, And Expressions Of Gender In The Zapotec Culture, Leah Mack

Audre Lorde Prize

This work is a cultural analysis of the Indigenous Zapotec third-gender community in Juchitán, México called the muxes. It examines the historical context that explains how the muxes have survived the process of Spanish colonization: a history of resistance and pride in their Indigenous identities. This essay also explains the European norms of the gender binary and how the norms in Juchitán are different and unique. Then, it analyzes a few cultural spaces that are important to the Zapotec Indigenous identity and the gender identity of the muxes, such as the market and the festive celebrations known as Las Velas. …