Exploring Research Communities @ Mizzou (Theme: Working with Indigenous Communities)

There are hundreds of researchers at Mizzou, each working on important and interesting research and creative projects. Besides googling websites, how do you find out about what all these people are studying? Let us introduce you to some of these folks! In this series of panel discussions, Exploring Research Communities @ Mizzou will bring together a small group of Mizzou faculty who work on a similar topic, but approach it from very different directions. Faculty will discuss their research topics and what students in their labs might expect.

In this panel, the unifying theme is 'Working with Indigenous Communities: Decolonizing Methodologies.' In addition to learning how this scholarly approach centers Indigenous perspectives and world views, Mizzou faculty will share the diverse research questions they are pursuing: 

• Dr. Medea Csoba DeHass (Geography), research area: digital preservation of Arctic Indigenous heritage  
• Dr. Dennis Kelley (Classics, Archaeology & Religion), research area: religious traditions of Native North Americans 
• Dr. Melissa Lewis (Cherokee Nation citizen; School of Medicine), research area: Culture, health and wellness within Indigenous communities 
• Dr. Mark Palmer (Geography), research area: translating Indigenous knowledge into standardized 3-D image and visualization technologies
• Dr. Jaquetta Shade-Johnson (Cherokee Nation citizen; English and School for Visual Studies), research areas: digital storytelling and rhetorical meaning-making in Indigenous communities