Spanish and Mexican San Francisco: Colonialism and its Consequence, Mon. March 15

Gregg Castro

California Indigenous Writer and Activist of the Association for the Ramaytush Ohlone

Gregg Castro has been involved in the preservation of his cultural heritage for nearly three decades. He represents his late Mother’s Ohlone family interests in protection of their heritage in their homeland, the rumsien Ohlone Monterey Bay area. On his late Father’s side, he was a founding member of the contemporary Salinan Nation Tribal Council (serving two terms as Tribal Chair) and their non-profit organization, now known as Salinan T’rowt’raahl where he continues in a leadership role. He recently accepted the role of assisting his Ramaytush relatives in the San Francisco Peninsula as “Principal Cultural Consultant to the Ramaytush Tribal Chair’ in representing their interests in their homeland.

Protecting sacred sites: Project Juristac, Mon. March 15

Valentin Lopez

Chair of Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Native American Advisor

Valentin Lopez has served as Chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band since 2003, and the President of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust since its inception. Valentin is a Native American Advisor to the University of California, Office of the President on issues related to repatriation. He is also a Native American Advisor to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Valentin is actively involved in efforts to restore tribal indigenous knowledge and ensure that history is accurately told.

Legal and Policy Approaches to Protecting Indigenous Lifeways and Homelands, Tues. March 16

Beth Rose Middleton Manning, PhD

Professor of Native American Studies at UC Davis

Beth Rose’s research centers on Native environmental policy and Native activism for site protection using conservation tools, and her broader research interests include intergenerational trauma and healing, rural environmental justice, Indigenous analysis of climate change, African and Indigenous intersections in the Americas, and qualitative GIS. She is committed to participatory research that contributes to social justice, and to increasing underrepresented voices in academia and policy. Beth Rose received her BA in Nature and Culture from UC Davis, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley. She is the author of two books: Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation (University of Arizona Press 2011), which focuses on Native applications of conservation easements and land trust structures, and Upstream (University of Arizona Press, 2018), on the history of Indian allotment lands at the headwaters of the California State Water Project. She has published on Native economic development, political ecology and healing, Federal Indian law as environmental policy, the history of the environmental justice movement, using environmental laws for Indigenous rights, applying market-based conservation tools to meet Indigenous goals, addressing challenges to cultural site protection in California and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Indigenous-led adaptations to climate change. She is currently working on several climate adaptation and environmental health-related projects in collaboration with Indigenous peoples in California and beyond.

“We Are a Part of the Land and the Land Is Us”: Settler Colonialism, Genocide & Healing in California, Tues. March 16

Kaitlin Reed, PhD

Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University

Kaitlin Reed (Yurok/Hupa/Oneida) is an Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University. Her research is focused on tribal land and water rights, extractive capitalism, and settler colonial political economies. She is currently working on her book entitled From Gold Rush to Green Rush: The Ecology of Settler Colonialism in Northern California. This book connects the historical and ecological dots between the Gold Rush and the Green Rush, focusing on capitalistic resource extraction and violence against indigenous lands and bodies. Kaitlin obtained her B.A. degree in Geography at Vassar College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. In 2018, she was awarded the Charles Eastman Fellowship of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. Dr. Reed is an enrolled member of the Yurok Tribe in Northwestern California. In her free time, she likes to knit, watch reality television, and spend time with her partner, Michael, and her cat, Fitzherbert.

TBD, Tues. March 16

Mehana Vaughan, PhD

Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, with a joint appointment to UH Sea Grant and Hui ʻĀina Momona

Mehana Vaughan is as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, with a joint appointment to UH Sea Grant and Hui ʻĀina Momona. She works with a consortium of scholars who collaborate with Hawaiʻi communities to develop solutions to natural and cultural resource management, food security and sustainability issues. She holds a PhD from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program for Environment and Research at Stanford University. Mehana comes from the rural Halele‘a district on the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i. For over ten years, she was a middle and high school teacher who worked on developing place-based education programs with Kaua‘i community groups. She has also been involved in a number of community planning efforts, including work related to community stewardship of natural resources in Wai‘anae on O‘ahu, in Miloli‘i on the island of Hawai‘i, and on Kaua‘i. Mehana’s research interests include community efforts to care for natural resources at the local level, collaborative resource management partnerships, contemporary management based on indigenous systems, participatory research methods, watershed ecology, and place based education. Her dissertation research focused on collaborative management of a coastal fishery in Hāʻena, Kauaʻi by government agencies and community members. She investigated the creation of state law based on customary local management practices, and suggested means of improving initial phases of collaborative resource management partnerships. She also worked with Native Hawaiian fishermen to understand community level benefits created though sharing of subsistence harvests. Mehana is grateful to her children, husband, family, and to all of the Hawai‘i communities that have supported and informed her work.

Legacy Sites and the Implications of Exploitation of Indigenous Lands, Tues. March 16

Carrie Nuva Joseph, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Scholar with the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University

Dr. Carrie Nuva Joseph (Hopi) is a Postdoctoral Scholar within the Department of Sustainable Engineering and the Natural Environment at Arizona State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona’s Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science. She specializes in the chemical and biogeophysical relationships between natural and engineered landscapes impacted by hazardous waste and human disturbance. Her interdisciplinary efforts include research on climate change impacts, human exposures to anthropogenic contaminants, hydrology, and water resource management in Indigenous communities. Using a holistic lens, Dr. Joseph’s work informs decision-making in science and policy, to advance social equity and data sovereignty efforts in marginalized populations. Dr. Joseph is a recipient of numerous honors and award including her previous department’s 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award and the National Congress of American Indian’s 40 under 40 in Indian Country. Carrie is a citizen of the Hopi Nation, where she was born and raised. She is of the Coyote clan and child of the Snow clan from the Village of Moencopi.

Community Forum, Weds. March 17

Dr. Eduardo Duran

Psychotherapist and consultant

Dr. Eduardo Duran has been working as a clinical psychologist for over two decades. Much of his clinical and research work has concentrated on working with the legacy of historical trauma, which is the trauma that occurs in families and is then passed on to the following generation unless the trauma or soul wounding is dealt with. Through that process he has learned that wounding of the spirit has been endured by most people in the world and the lessons learned from this work is relevant to most people presenting with therapeutic issues. Dr. Duran has served as a professor of psychology in several graduate settings and continues to teach, and lecture in community settings all over the world. Eduardo lives and works in Bozeman Montana with his wife Judith Firehammer and his daughters Katirie and Anaya.

Community Forum, Weds. March 17

Rachel Bryant

Director of Office of Diversity & Inclusion and Adjunct Professor

Rachel serves as the Chief Diversity Officer for California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, where she earned a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Community Mental Health. Her passion and research interests situate her life-work and scholarship at the intersection of social justice, education, and psychology. She is working to facilitate closure between knowledge production in institutions and the need for knowledge in communities traditionally excluded. She serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Master’s in Counseling Psychology and Undergraduate Studies Programs at CIIS. Rachel is also a Core Member of the Healing Clinic Collective, which provides loving traditional healing sessions to people from especially traumatized populations in the Bay Area. As a teacher-student, Rachel honors the wisdom and intelligence of everyday people, the human body, and the natural world. She confidently believes that all people have the innate wisdom and intelligence to serve as healers and educators in their communities. When Rachel is not working, you can find her creating multimedia artworks, gardening, or in the kitchen experimenting with soul food from around the world. She lives in East Oakland with her daughter.

Audibility in Quinault's Adaptation to Climate Change, Weds. March 17

Tory Johnston

Doctoral Candidate at University of California Davis

Tory Johnston (Quinault) is a PhD student in Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis with Designated Emphases in Environmental Humanities and Science and Technology Studies. His research interests include: Indigenous Sound and Music Studies; Critical Indigenous Studies approaches to ecomusicology; Quinault auralities (aural ontologies) and musicking; Quinault-specific praxes and knowledge systems; tribal sovereignty, governance, and resource management.

Connecting to Sacred Lands, Weds. March 17

Michael "Pom" Preston

Cultural Preservation Officer, Indigenous and Eco-Activist and Community Leader, Director

Michael “Pom” Preston is a member of the Winnemem Wintu tribe and is the son of current Winnemem tribal chief Caleen Sisk. He has been dancing in the Winnemem way since he was 4 years old and grew up going to his sacred places. He continues to protect his sacred sites along the McCloud River which have been under threat of inundation from the Shasta Dam raise effort by the US Bureau of Reclamation.  One of the ways he is helping to protect his river is through the Run4salmon, which is a 300 mile prayer run from the San Francisco Bay to the headwaters of the McCloud River. In this prayer journey they make prayers at specific points along the 300 miles of water ways for the return of the Chinook salmon, the health of the water and lands, as well as raise awareness about  the Shasta dam raise and the bay delta tunnel’s threats to salmon and the overall water’s health. Michael is the co-director of the documentary Sawalmem, meaning sacred water, in which he shares his story of personal transformation related to a single untranslatable word from his language — a word offered to humanity as medicine to heal our relationship with the Earth. 

Connecting to Sacred Lands, Weds. March 17

Natasha Deganello Giraudie

Creative Director and Founder of Micro-Documentaries

Natasha Deganello Giraudie is the Creative Director and Founder of Micro-Documentaries. Natasha founded Micro-Documentaries with a vision to make compelling cinematic filmmaking accessible to all social innovators. The resulting short films, solution trailers of sorts, have helped nonprofits and purposeful businesses in more than 30 countries advance their missions, raise funds, advance legislation and increase though leadership. Natasha regularly writes and teaches on topics related to storytelling, social innovation, and short documentary film production, and distribution for purposeful businesses and nonprofits. Natasha combines her passion for film with a lifelong commitment to the nonprofit sector. She has worked as a field and board volunteer with nonprofits in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the U.S. since she was a teenager. She co-chairs the Advisory Board of the Dalai Lama Fellows and serves on the Advisory Boards of Tools for Peace and the Biomimicry Institute. Natasha lives in the Bay Area with her husband and daughter, where she enjoys paddleboarding with sea lions and discovering the joys of the violin.

Mashkiki: Remembering the Medicine of the Land, Weds. March 17

Melissa K. Nelson, PhD

Indigenous ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and scholar-activist at Arizona State University

Melissa K. Nelson, PhD is a professor of Indigenous Sustainability in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Dr. Nelson is an Indigenous ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and scholar-activist. Before joining the School of Sustainability, she served as a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University (2002 – 2020), specializing in Indigenous Environmental and California Indian Studies. Dr. Nelson is a transdisciplinary and community-based scholar dedicated to Indigenous rights and sustainability, biocultural heritage and environmental justice, intercultural solidarity, and the renewal and celebration of community health and cultural arts. She actively advocates for Indigenous Peoples rights and sustainable lifeways in higher education, nonprofits, and philanthropy, and is particularly passionate about Indigenous food sovereignty at local, regional and global levels. Dr. Nelson has led numerous community-based projects through her work at The Cultural Conservancy, an Indigenous-led organization, which she has directed since 1993. She is Anishinaabe, Cree, Métis, and Norwegian (a proud member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians).

Karuk Climate Adaptation in Northern California, Weds. March 17

Ron Reed

Ceremonial leader, dipnet fisherman and a cultural biologist for the Karuk Tribe of California

Ron Reed is a Karuk ceremonial leader, dipnet fisherman and a cultural biologist for the Karuk Tribe of California, where he develops plans for eco-cultural revitalization, leads youth cultural education camps, and fosters collaborative research at the nexus of traditional ecological knowledge and western science. Ron plays a critical role in increasing public awareness about the impacts of colonization on the spiritual and physical health of his people and on the ecological integrity of the Karuk ancestral lands. He is a co-founder of the Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative and works with the nearby tribes, UC Berkeley and the USDA on the Klamath Basin Tribal Food Security Project. In this episode, Ron talks with Devon about re-discovering traditional knowledge, the trouble with and power of expertise, and renewing the forest and our culture with sacred fire.

Tibetan Sacred Geography, Thurs. March 18

Tatjana Kochtekova, PhD

Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law School, India

Tatjana Kochtekova, Assistant Professor at Jindal Global University, India. She grew up in Kiev, Ukraine and conducted doctoral research on at Kiev National University on Self in the Speech Acts Theory. She joined the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands as a junior researcher and completed her second doctoral thesis dedicated to the dynamics of human condition. She conducted research on environmental philosophy and ethical implications of biotechnology at Utrecht University for Humanistic. She has been appointed as Assistant Professor in Applied Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at the University of Twente (Netherlands). She is the author of several books and a series of articles on environmental philosophy and philosophy of man and technology. In 2018 she published, together with Rico Sneller and Nelleke Canters, a book The Plurality of the Arts of Living (Garant, Belgium). Her research embraces environmental philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and Asian philosophies of Nature.

The Primal Metaphysics of Becoming-Animal during the Hunt in the Kalahari Desert, Thurs. March 18

Chantal Noa Forbes, PhDc

Doctoral Candidate in Ecology, Spirituality and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies

I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of Ecology, Spirituality and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and the co-founder of the non-profit, the Deep Water Initiative. My research looks at Indigenous approaches to environmental engagement with a focus on human-animal relationships in hunter-gatherer cosmology. South African born and raised, my professional background spans 15 years of experience in media, corporate communications, and the agricultural development sector. I received a B.A. in film production from the internationally award-winning film school AFDA, in South Africa, and an M.A. in Middle Eastern History from Tel-Aviv University. In the past decade, I have worked extensively throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the U.S. In 2017 I relocated to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. I am passionate about effecting social change through artistic mediums of cultural expression and storytelling. My broad fields of interest include human-animal relations, religion and ecology, and the Primal and Indigenous origins of religious rites and practices.

The Hills are Really Alive!: Sacred Mountains and the Renewal of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Japan, Thurs. March 18

John Clammer, PhD

Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Kyoto University, and Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities at O.P. Jindal Global University

John Clammer is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Kyoto University, Japan, and is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, NCR of Delhi, India. He was for almost twenty years Professor of Comparative Sociology and Asian Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo, and has taught at universities in Singapore, Germany, Australia, India, the UK, Argentina and South Korea. He has written widely on Japanese society and culture, the sociologies of religion and art, sustainability, alternative development patterns, and social philosophy.

Sacred Natural Sites as Nodes of Resistance and Resilience, Thurs. March 18

Elizabeth Allison, PhD

Chair of Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion and Associate Professor of Ecology and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies

Elizabeth Allison, PhD, is an environmental social scientist studying the intersection of religion and ecology. Dr. Allison studies the convergence of religion and ethics with environmental policy and practice through researching traditional ecological knowledge in mountain regions, particularly as it relates to biodiversity, waste, ecological place, and climate change. She is Associate Professor of Ecology and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where she founded and chairs the graduate program in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion and created the Religion & Ecology Summit series of annual conferences. Dr. Allison is co-editor of After the Death of Nature: Carolyn Merchant and the Future of Human-Nature Relations (2019). She is currently writing a book about religion, the environment and development in the modernizing of Bhutan, as well as co-leading a research project on the melting of glaciers with the Institute of Research for Development in France. Dr. Allison earned her PhD in environmental science, policy and management from the University of California Berkeley. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Nepal. She also holds a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a master’s degree in religion from the Yale Divinity School.

The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, Fri. March 19

Dina Gilio-Whitaker

Lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, and an independent consultant and educator in environmental justice policy planning.

Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is a lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, and an independent consultant and educator in environmental justice policy planning. At CSUSM she teaches courses on environmentalism and American Indians, traditional ecological knowledge, religion and philosophy, Native women’s activism, American Indians and sports, and decolonization. She also works within the field of critical sports studies, examining the intersections of indigeneity and the sport of surfing. As a public intellectual, Dina brings her scholarship into focus as an award-winning journalist as well, contributing to numerous online outlets including Indian Country Today, the Los Angeles Times, High Country News and many more. Dina is co-author with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz of Beacon Press’s “All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans (2016), and her most recent book, As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock, was released in 2019.

Healing Cosmovisions and Transformative Cosmopolitics, Fri. March 19

Mary Evelyn Tucker, PhD and John Grim, PhD

Founders & Directors of the Yale Forum for Religion & Ecology and faculty at Yale Divinity School and Yale School of the Environment

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim teach at Yale School of the Environment and Yale Divinity School. They direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, which arose from ten conferences they organized at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. They are series editors of the Harvard volumes from the conferences on Religion and Ecology. Tucker specializes in East Asian religions, especially Confucianism. Grim specializes in indigenous traditions, especially Native American religions. Grim and Tucker have written a number of books including Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014) and edited the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2017). They are editors for the series on Ecology and Justice from Orbis Books. They were students of Thomas Berry and collaborated over several decades to edit his books. They also wrote Thomas Berry: A Biography with Andrew Angyal (Columbia, 2019). With his article “The New Story,” Berry was a major inspiration for Journey of the Universe. With Brian Thomas Swimme, Tucker and Grim created this multi-media project that includes a book (Yale, 2011), an Emmy award winning film, a series of Conversations, and online courses from Yale/Coursera.

Recipient of the Thomas Berry Award, Fri. March 19

Carl Anthony

Architect, author and urban/regional design strategist, and co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project.

Carl Anthony is an architect, author and urban / suburban / regional design strategist. He is co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project. He has served as Acting Director of the Community and Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation, responsible for the Foundation’s world-wide programs in fields of Environment and Development, and Community Development.  He directed the Foundation’s Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative and the Regional Equity Demonstration in the United States. Carl funded the national Conversation on Regional Equity (CORE), a dialogue of national policy analysts and advocates for new metropolitan racial justice strategies. He was Founder and, for 12 years Executive Director, of the Urban Habitat Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. With his colleague Luke Cole at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, he founded and published the Race, Poverty and the Environment Journal, the only environmental justice periodical in the United States. In 1996, he was appointed Fellow at the Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is the author of The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race (New Village Press, 2017). 

Recipient of the Thomas Berry Award, Fri. March 19

Paloma Pavel, PhD

President of Earth House Center and co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project

Paloma Pavel, PhD, is President of Earth House Center. She is co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project and served as Director of Strategic Communications for the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative at the Ford Foundation. Pavel’s academic background includes graduate study at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Harvard University. Her research at LSE addresses South African Economics in the pre- and post-Apartheid eras. Her dissertation (Organizational Culture and Leadership Development) was part of a five-year study by the Carnegie Foundation on the workplace in America, which culminated in the publication Good Work. She has taught at many Bay Area institutions, including the California Institute for Integral Studies, where she co-chaired the graduate degree program in Organizational Development. Pavel is a frequent lecturer and keynote presenter nationally and internationally on the theory of living systems and urban sustainability. Dr. Pavel is visiting faculty at the University of California, Davis, where she also serves on the Regional Advisory Council for the Center for Regional Change.  At MIT Press, she co-edits the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Books series with Robert Gottlieb. Dr. Pavel is editor of the nationally recognized book entitled, Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis(MIT Press, 2009).