Building Critical Mass | Institutional Diversity

Feb. 13, 2023

Faculty cluster hire supports new Indigenous Studies minor.

For David G. Lewis, it frees up time for his groundbreaking work on Oregon Native American history. For Patricia Fifita, it’s reaching “the pinnacle of the academic pathway.” For Luhui Whitebear, it’s opportunities to honor her mentors by mentoring Indigenous students at Oregon State University.

The three faculty members, all of whom have longstanding connections to the university, recently earned tenure-track appointments as assistant professors in the School of Language, Culture and Society in the College of Liberal Arts. Through what’s known as a cluster hire, the school can launch a minor in Indigenous studies, with the potential to launch a major in the future.

Realizing a longtime priority

Creating an Indigenous studies program has been a priority for Susan Bernardin since she came to lead the School of Language, Culture and Society in 2017. However, along with herself, there were only two tenured professors who specialize in Indigenous studies, Natchee Barnd and Qwo Li Driskill, too few people to support such a program. The cluster hire, she says, provides the critical mass they needed.

Universities often use cluster hires to bring in faculty with shared or overlapping areas of research or teaching expertise while enhancing the representation of minorities or other marginalized groups. The cluster hire also creates “a cohort that can support each other and build community,” Bernardin says.

For a predominantly white institution like Oregon State, a cluster hire also sends a message across campus and beyond that diversity, equity and inclusion matter.

“It’s long overdue and yet very urgent for Oregon State University to demonstrate its responsibility to the nine federally recognized Tribes of Oregon and to the Indigenous people who call the Pacific Northwest home,” she says.

New faculty, distinctive strengths

The three faculty members each bring distinctive strengths to the Indigenous studies program. They say the appointment as assistant professors will allow them to pursue new research. It also gives them the opportunity to serve as mentors to students of color, in some cases, repaying the debt to someone who mentored them years ago.

Lewis, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, is the first tenure-track appointment for a descendent of the Kalapuyan people whose land the university is located on. He’s known throughout the state for consulting work and for his work researching Oregon Native American history. Lewis regularly blogs about Indigenous history on his website, Quartux: A Journal of Critical Indigenous Anthropology.

Fifita, the first Tongan tenure-track appointment at Oregon State, is a medical anthropologist who has studied women’s health issues, climate justice and food sovereignty in the Pacific Islands. She says the appointment provides additional clout to pursue grant money for other community-based research projects.

Whitebear, an enrolled member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, is the university’s first Chumash tenure-track appointment. She is also the director of Kaku-Ixt Mana Ina Haws, the first tenure-track faculty member to lead one of OSU's cultural resource centers. Whitebear’s research includes work on Indigenous feminism, Indigenous identity and gender roles, murdered and missing Indigenous women and Indigenous resistance movements. She is excited about the opportunity to publish more of her scholarly work, having struggled to find work by Indigenous scholars related to her research when she was an OSU student.

All three faculty members say they’re encouraged by the cluster hire, but they emphasize that the process shouldn’t stop there.

“This shouldn’t be viewed as, ‘OK, we’re done,’” Whitebear says. “We need more Indigenous faculty across multiple disciplines.”

Lewis agrees, pointing to work he’s been doing with faculty in the College of Forestry. “Native knowledge about our environment has meaning, and we need to bring that into our collective knowledge,” he says.

Fifita says the cluster hire “sent a really strong message that (Indigenous) histories and knowledge are valued and should be prioritized.”

Bernardin believes Indigenous knowledge shouldn’t be confined to an Indigenous studies program.

“I think Oregon State needs to prioritize Indigenous excellence across the university. It is long overdue,” she says. “My hope is this is the beginning of a transformative era for Oregon State in its history as a land grant institution.” Along with racial diversity, she wants to make sure the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities are part of the conversation.

A FLOURISHING FIELD OF STUDY

There’s another important reason why Oregon State is offering a program in Indigenous studies: It’s a field with strong and growing interest.

“Yes, the reparative aspect is really important, the institutional responsibility is also important, but Indigenous studies is this absolutely extraordinary flourishing field,” Bernardin says. She believes the new hires will be a catalyst for other initiatives.

“It’s a move that inspires, excites and helps folks see that we mean it and want to build this,” she says. “This is absolutely critical to the future we want to envision for ourselves in the College of Liberal Arts, for our students and faculty and for our communities.

“This is not where we stop. This is where we start.”

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