“Reflections on Indigenous Peoplehood: Literature, Theology, Education and Philosophy”
On Wednesday October 17th 2006, American Indian Studies will hold their Colloquium Series in a one
day event. Please join use as we welcome Jace Weaver, Dr. Bryan Brayboy, and Lee Hester.
Jace Weaver
Professor and Director
Institute of Native American Studies
Native American Cultures and Religious Traditions, Eschatology, Apocalypticism
University of Georgia
Jace Weaver is Director of the INAS, Professor of Religion, and Adjunct Professor of Law at the
University of Georgia. As director, he serves as advisor for all students in the undergraduate and
graduate Native American Studies Programs. He holds two doctorates, a J.D. from Columbia Law School
of Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Dr. Weaver’s work in Native American Studies is highly interdisciplinary, though focusing
primarily on three areas: religious traditions, literature, and law. He is the author or editor of
eight books, including That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native American
Community, Other Words: American Indian Literature, Law, and Culture, and Turtle Goes to War: Of
Military Commissions, the Constitution and American Indian Memory. He is currently completing a book
on Native American literary criticism with Robert Warrior, Craig Womack, and Simon Ortiz.
In 2003, Dr. Weaver won the Wordcraft Award for Best Creative Non-Fiction from the Wordcraft
Circle of Native American Writers for Other Words. In 1999, he won the Portfolio Award for
excellence in teaching resources from the journal Media and Methods for his book on CD-ROM, American
Journey: The Native American Experience. He has also been nominated for the Oklahoma and
Connecticut Book Awards.
Dr. Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy
Associate Professor of Education
Founder/PI of American Indian Teacher Training Program
University of Utah
Dr. Brayboy is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe, he is also co-director of the Center for the Study of
Empowered Students of Color.
Over the past four years, Dr. Brayboy and his research team have received over $4 million in
grants and preparation programs. In 2002, he founded the University of Utah American Indian Teacher
Training Program, which aims to prepare Indigenous educators to return to their communities and work
with Indigenous children. This Program is rooted in his belief of self-determination through
self-education. By this, Brayboy means that Indigenous people can better determine what kinds of
teachers we want and need to be in order to better meet the educational needs of our children.
The AITTP has graduated over 20 Indigenous educators, and there are currently 21 more on campus
preparing to become licensed educators. Along with these preparation programs, he has been
consulting with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education in creating a
series of workshops for teachers of Indigenous children. All of my work—research, teaching, and
service—are guided by my belief in social justice and to potentially contribute to Indigenous
communities in whatever ways possible.
Dr. Brayboy has had articles published in Harvard Educational Review, The Urban Review,
Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Educational Studies, Theory Into Practice and The International
Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. He has also published numerous book chapters on American
Indian education and diversity in education.
Scott Richard Lyons
Founding Director of the Center for Indigenous Studies
Assistant Professor of English
St. John Fisher College
Scott Richard Lyons (Leech Lake Ojibwe) has taught at higher educational institutions as varied
as Leech Lake Tribal College and Syracuse University, and he has worked on reservation-based
grassroot projects, from language revitalization initiatives to teen programs. A frequent lecturer
on Native issues, Lyons has published essays in American academic journals, Native youth magazines,
and most recently in India's leading chronicle of theory and politics, The Journal of Contemporary
Thought. As of this fall, he is Assistant Professor of English at St. John Fisher College in
Rochester, New York, where he is also the founding director of the new Center for Indigenous Studies.
A regular columnist for Indian Country Today, Lyons is writing a book on indigenous cultural theory.
