Professor Amanda Tachine from Arizona State University visited campus recently as a guest speaker in EDU 781, Professor Gretchen Lopez’s graduate course for doctoral students in the School of Education.
Dr. Tachine, Assistant Professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (Higher & Postsecondary Education), presented on her recently released book “Native presence and sovereignty in college: Sustaining Indigenous weapons to defeat systemic monsters” (Teachers College Press, 2022). Dr. Tachine shared aspects of her writing process during the COVID lockdown, methodological reflections, and further research and stories of Navajo (Diné) resurgence, continuance, and refusal. The book follows several Navajo students on their journeys toward college. Reviewers describe it as a “compelling exemplar of Indigenous methodology” and “paradigm-shifting” (Sandy Grande); providing “crucial lessons for confronting systemic education inequities” (Teresa McCarty).
Dr. Tachine also engaged faculty and graduate students (from Cultural Foundations of Education, Higher Education, Teaching & Leadership, the Engaged BIPOC Scholar-Practitioner Program and the Native Student Program) in small group lunch/dinner gatherings including discussion of a second publication released this year, “Weaving an otherwise: In-Relations methodological practice,” co-edited with Z. Nicolazzo (Stylus, 2022). A critical and dynamic volume, this scholarship explores “possibilities by weaving an otherwise in qualitative research” (p. 2) including chapters addressing “reflexivity, responsibility, and relationships” (p. 6), survivance, kinship, ghosts, gifting, community, individual and collective storytelling, abolition, and decolonization.
This was a one-day visit but with tremendous impact on all who attended, providing fuel for many ongoing/future discussions, projects, and reflections. The Intergroup Dialogue Program expresses deep gratitude to Prof. Amanda Tachine for sharing her work so generously in these beautiful ways. We wish you well as the book tour(s) continue!
