Examining Diversity in Higher Education

Examining Diversity: Native American Representation in Higher Education

Swarthmore College will host a panel discussion on the presence of Native American students, curricula, culture, and experiences in academia. Less than one percent of the students at Swarthmore identify as Native American; this is characteristic of most other universities along the East Coast. In many academic disciplines, there is an absence of attention to Native peoples and issues. How, then, can curricula address the colonizing legacy of academia? Panelists will discuss the relationship between higher education and Native American communities, and consider how colleges can incorporate Native epistemologies, practices, and cultures in a manner that truly reflects decolonizing methodologies. Featured speakers include:

Nanci Buiza (Moderator) - Assistant Professor of Spanish at Swarthmore College. Buiza is in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Swarthmore. She teaches Latin American literatures and cultures with a focus on Mexico and Central America, researching the fragmented interpersonal relationships that result from war and state terror. She received her PhD from Emory University. She was born in El Salvador and immigrated to Los Angeles as a teenager. She is also a first-generation college student.

Shelley DePaul - Chief of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. DePaul was appointed Assistant Chief in 2009, and Chief in 2014. She has worked for the Lenape Nation since 2004 as a genealogy researcher, historical researcher, Lenape language specialist, and educator. She developed the Lenape Language Curriculum for use in schools, universities and home school associations. Shelley is the curator of the Lenape exhibit at the Sigal Museum in Easton. She has a B.S. in education, M.A. in history and is a Pennsylvania State Certified teacher. She has taught English, History and Music in public schools and universities throughout Eastern PA. Shelley is currently teaching courses in the Lenape Language at Swarthmore College.

Karenne Wood - Director of the Virginia Indian Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Wood is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation who serves on the Tribal Council. She directs Virginia Indian Programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, holds an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University, and is a PhD candidate and Ford Fellow in anthropology at the University of Virginia. She held a four-year gubernatorial appointment as Chair of the Virginia Council on Indians through 2007. She edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, now in its third edition; and contributed a chapter on Southeastern Indians to National Geographic’s Indian Nations of North America.

Margaret Bruchac - Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American & Indigenous Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Bruchac, of Abenaki Indian descent, is the first Native American professor of anthropology at Penn. She was as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Connecticut from 2008-2012. She served as a member of the Five College Native American Indian Studies Curriculum Committee from 1995-2008, and as the Repatriation Research Liaison for Amherst College and Smith College from 2003-2009. She received her B.A. from Smith College, and her M.A. and PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Roberto Rivas - Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at Swarthmore College and Director of Multicultural Recruitment. Rivas, appointed  in 2013, oversees efforts to ensure diversity in recruitment programs and policies, including reviewing student applications from the New York and Pennsylvania region. He served as Assistant Director of Admissions at Williams College from 2004-2011. He received his B.A. from Williams College, and his M.A. from Middlebury College.

For more information on Native Heritage Month events, see: Swarthmore College Intercultural Center.

For more information on the Native American Student Association at Swarthmore College,
contact Brett Stanfield and Daniel Orr, email: dorr1@swarthmore.edu