- Details
- By Native News Online Staff
The Bard College Center for Indigenous Studies (CfIS) will host its third annual symposium, An Invitation to Interconnectedness: Indigenous Approaches to Information, Knowledge, Justice, and Belonging, on March 9–10 at Bard College’s Annandale campus.
Presented as part of CfIS’s mission to advance public programming in Native American and Indigenous Studies through education, the arts, and advocacy, the symposium invites participants to engage deeply with Indigenous approaches to information stewardship in libraries, archives, and museums.
Through panels, discussions, and collaborative workshops led by distinguished scholars and practitioners, the program will examine Indigenous taxonomies, reparative cataloging, and community-centered protocols within libraries, archives, and museum collections. Grounded in Indigenous frameworks of relationality, the gathering centers relationship as both methodology and responsibility. As guest conveners Miranda Belarde-Lewis, Marisa Duarte, and Sandy Littletree write, “Relationality is dynamic. It allows us to actively participate in our world, ensuring that our interactions are compassionate, loving, and caring, as we become accountable to those with whom we relate.”
The symposium also aims to cultivate and strengthen networks among those committed to equitable information services in the Mahicanituck (Hudson) Valley and beyond.
The event opens March 9 at 11:15 a.m. with a keynote by Miranda Belarde-Lewis (Zuni/Tlingit), followed by a professional workshop for librarians led by a team from the Labriola National American Indian Data Center. Additional panels and presentations continue through March 10.
Registration is required. For more information and to register, please visit the event page or contact [email protected].
Speakers
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Miranda Belarde-Lewis (Zuni/Tlingit) is Associate Professor of North American Indigenous Knowledge at the University of Washington Information School. She has developed Native-centered educational programming and publications in collaboration with tribal, municipal, state, and federal museums.
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Marisa Duarte (Pascua Yaqui Tribe/Chicanx) is Associate Professor in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Her research explores information, knowledge, and technology in Indigenous contexts, with particular attention to how Native and Indigenous communities use social media to circulate Indigenous ways of knowing.
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Sandy Littletree (Navajo/Eastern Shoshone) is Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Information School. Her scholarship examines the relationships between Indigenous knowledge systems and library and information science, advancing Indigenous frameworks within the field.
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Sarah Kostelecky (Zuni Pueblo) is Associate Professor and Director of the Indigenous Nations Library Program (INLP) at the University of New Mexico. Formerly the inaugural Program Specialist (Indigenous Peoples) at the Library of Congress, she studies how institutions can transform their practices to support and safeguard Indigenous knowledge systems.
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Alexander Soto (Tohono O’odham Nation) is Director of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University Library. He has led culturally responsive research services and Indigenized community-based archival initiatives for Tribal communities. Alongside colleague Vina Begay, he will discuss Indigenous-centered systems for organizing and understanding archives, with an emphasis on access and community authority.
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Vina Begay (Diné Nation) is Assistant Librarian and Archivist at the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University. She serves as Chair of the Native American Archives Section and is a member of the Society of American Archivists’ Archival Repatriation Committee. Her work focuses on Indigenous-centered archival practice and the affirmation of community authority over cultural knowledge and belongings.
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