Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies

INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES - In spring 2025, Assistant Professor Lana Lopesi received the Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching in recognition of her early career excellence. Lopesi said the award was affirming for her because teaching can feel like a private exercise between her and her students, invisible beyond the classroom. Since joining the UO, she has developed five courses within her department and helped put together the first IRES study abroad program to Sāmoa in partnership with political science professor Ronald Mitchell. 

INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES, NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - An exhibit curated by Felix Furby and Anthony Hudson at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, showcases Indigenous and Queer artists and their work about their intersectional identities. IRES graduate student Rachel Cushman spoke at an Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration at the museum, as reported by the Daily Emerald.

Eight faculty members have been selected to win this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, which recognize exceptional teaching at the University of Oregon. The 2024-25 recipients are Lana Lopesi, Adell Amos, Mohsen Manesh, Marli Miller, Damian Radcliffe, Corinne Bayerl, Amanda Wojick and Naoko Nakadate.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES—As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an associate professor of English at the University of Oregon, Kirby Brown blends a deep commitment to preserving his family’s personal stories with a vision for fostering Indigenous research and archival storytelling. Through storytelling and literature, he seeks to highlight moments of love, joy, humor, resistance, desire, and futurity.

LINGUISTICS, NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - Ichishkíin, also known as Sahaptin, is a severely endangered Native American language of the Pacific Northwest. Several Tribes from the region are working diligently to revitalize the language and a committed group of educators, linguists and Tribal members at the University of Oregon are working to support those efforts. The latest achievement is the extension of the two-year language learning program to include a third year of instruction in Ichishkíin.

INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES, POLITICAL SCIENCE, SOCIOLOGY - We’re entering a new phase in the digital revolution, one in which scientists are stretching the capabilities of digital technologies to solve some of society’s largest and most complex problems. Read more in the Annual Research Report, out now.

GEOGRAPHY, INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES - Oregon’s historical markers, those roadside signs commemorating the state's past, give a version of history that University of Oregon researchers say is skewed. But a team of students is working to address the histories that highway markers omit through an online interactive map.

INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES - Four CAS undergraduate students spent three weeks in Los Angeles over the summer to help film scenes for the upcoming feature film La Serenata by Ernesto Javier Martínez, a professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, and co-writer and director Adelina Anthony.

Through fellowships, the Oregon Humanities Center at the University of Oregon works to promote innovative humanities research produced by faculty members at the UO. The fellowships are for tenure-track faculty and are awarded on an annual basis. The 2025-26 fellows include CAS faculty members in the Divisions of Humanities and Social Sciences.