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What are the opportunities for better collaboration between local Indigenous communities and U.S. universities? In this panel, researchers and educators discuss how institutions can (re)think Indigeneity in North America and in the United States in view of recent migration patterns. For example, given the number of U.S. residents with Mexican heritage, to what extent is the Indigenous heritage of Mexico also a part of the Indigenous heritage of the Southwestern US? And how might recent patterns of Indigenous Central American migration to the U.S. influence conversations about heritage and diversity in Colorado and the Southwest?

This conversation considers potential interdisciplinary collaborations between linguistics departments, language programs, law clinics, ethnic studies programs, oral history projects and beyond with a view toward supporting local Latin American and Latinx Indigenous communities in the U.S., and perhaps in their original home areas as well. Speakers will present examples of existing and potential collaboration, lessons learned from previous outreach initiatives, and frameworks for promoting a broader range of Indigenous futures in university spaces.

Panelists:

• Andres Cowell (CU Boulder Linguistics Department)
• Jason Romero (Latino History Project)
• Leila Gomez (CU Boulder Latin American Studies Center)
• Arturo Aldama (CU Boulder Ethnic Studies)
• Enrique Sepúlveda (CU Boulder Ethnic Studies)
• Kathia Ibacache (CU Boulder, University Libraries)
• Linds Roberts (CU Boulder, Education Librarian)

Andrew Cowell received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1993. He works in the areas of linguistic anthropology and language documentation. He has worked primarily on Arapaho, and also Gros Ventre and Miwok, and has an interest in Polynesia (Hawaii and Tahiti in particular) as well. He has published numerous articles and books, as well as developing curricular material and websites for language and culture learning and documentation. His current project is to develop a lexical database of Arapaho, with funding from the NSF/NEH DEL program.

Jason Romero, Jr. was born and raised in Pueblo, CO. He attended Pueblo Community College before pursuing a BA in Ethnic Studies and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Colorado Boulder. In addition to his role as Director of the Latino History Project, Romero is also the founder and co-director of the Aquetza Youth Leadership program and a high school Chicana/o/x Studies and Government teacher is southwest Denver. Romero is also involved in anti-colonial community work through the organization Al Frente de Lucha.

Leila Gómez (Ph.D. 2004, Johns Hopkins University) is the Director of CU´s Latin American Studies Center since 2017, and Associate Professor of Spanish. Her research interests are travel writing, female Indigenous narratives and films on land reclamation, feminist theory, and Quechua language and culture. Some of Dr. Gómez´s publications are her books Darwinism in Argentina (Bucknell UP 2012), Iluminados y tránsfugas. Relatos de viajeros y ficciones fundacionales en Argentina, Paraguay y Perú (Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2009), Teaching Gender through Latin American, Spanish and Latino Literature and Culture, (co-editor, Sense Publishers 2015); and Journal Special Issues Indigenous Narratives of Origin and Land Reclamation (English Language Notes 58(1) 2020), and Capitalismo, globalización y violencia de género (Co-editor, Letras femeninas. Vol 43, Nro 2. 2018).

Dr. Gómez was the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Advanced Researchers in 2015-2016 and is the Principal Investigator in the Project Building Institutional Continuity funded the US Department of Education Title VI, International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) Grant awarded to the Latin American Studies Center at CU in 2020 to teach Quechua courses at this institution.

Kathia Ibacache (Romance Languages Librarian, CU Boulder)

Kathia received her Master of Library and Information Science from San José State University and her Doctor of Musical Arts in Early Music Performance from the University of Southern California. After working for six years in public libraries, Kathia was appointed the Romance Languages Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interests encompass teaching and learning technologies, collection development and the representation of Latin American indigenous languages materials in university libraries. Kathia won an IMPART Award in 2019 and is currently an Assistant Professor.

Linds Roberts (Education Librarian, CU Boulder)

Linds Roberts, assistant professor at University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, is the subject liaison to the School of Education and Department of Ethnic Studies. They are also responsible for the Children's and Young Adult Collection. Their research interests focus on information literacy, motivational design, transfer of learning and metacognition/metaliteracy, particularly as they relate to adult learners. Linds earned an MLIS from University of Denver, and was selected as Outstanding MLIS student and nominated to the Beta Phi Mu Honors Society. Linds earned a BA in French and Humanities from CU Boulder. Before joining the University Libraries, Linds was a reference and outreach librarian at Arapahoe Community College. Contact them to arrange a research seminar for your class, to request a research consultation or to request the purchase of new materials.

Enrique Sepúlveda (Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies)

I am the son of Mexican migrant workers from the Texas/Mexican border and in my early career I worked as a bilingual classroom teacher and school principal in the northern California central valley. These experiences have shaped my lens and motivations to interrogate, examine and dismantle dominant structures, narratives and practices around culture, race and language that serve to marginalize and keep people from realizing their full humanity. I have centered my research projects in Latinx communities and schools heavily impacted by global migration in northern California, San Salvador, El Salvador, and Madrid, Spain. My research examines how Latinx peoples, youth and their families, negotiate from the bottom up global migration, citizenship, belonging and complex identity formation processes in the context of severe inequality and structural constraints within sending and receiving contexts of transnational migration circuits. My work seeks to understand and develop methodologies and pedagogies that facilitate a deeper understanding of the complex, liminal lives of migrant youth and community.

Arturo Aldama (Associate Professor, CU Boulder Ethnic Studies)

Dr. Arturo J. Aldama, born in Mexico City and grew up in Sacramento, California, serves as an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Ethnic Studies at CU Boulder and recently served as Director of CSERA (Center for Studies in Ethnicity and Race in the Americas). He received an MA and PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley in 1996.