Editor’s note: This is part of a monthly series of campus updates on diversity, equity and inclusion. This series will continue throughout the year.

November is National Native American Heritage Month and in early October, the Biden administration issued a proclamation establishing Indigenous Peoples Day to be marked every year on Oct. 11.

To celebrate the contributions of Indigenous and Native American communities this month and throughout the year, the Division of Student Affairs created a list of resources for the CU Boulder community.

Students, faculty and staff can also visit the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS) website for additional information about campus events and programs.

Virtual talk on rights of Indigenous people

On Dec. 4, the Office for Outreach and Engagement is hosting a CU on the Weekend talk titled “Rights of Indigenous People and Developing International Law.”

The virtual talk will feature speakers Distinguished Professor of Law S. James Anaya, former dean of Colorado Law, and Professor of International Law Nicholas Doman.

Students, faculty and staff can learn more about this talk and register to hear Anaya and Doman discuss the drivers behind and the most prominent elements of the growing body of international law and policy that affirms and promotes respect for Indigenous peoples’ rights.

Remembering CU alum, professor Vine Deloria Jr.

The Center for Humanities and the Arts hosted a virtual talk on Nov. 18 by Philip J. Deloria, the Leverett Saltonstall professor of history at Harvard University.

Deloria, who taught at CU Boulder for six years, also led a virtual workshop with CU Boulder graduate students to discuss the future of doctoral programs. He is the author of the award-winning “Playing Indian” (1999) and “Indians in Unexpected Places” (2004), among others.

In addition to his work as a faculty member and his support for our campus and students, Deloria has another important connection to CU Boulder: He is the son of the late Vine Deloria Jr., a Colorado Law alumnus and CU Boulder professor, lawyer, author, theologian, historian and activist known to many as the leading American Indian intellectual of the 20th century.

Vine Deloria Jr., who was born in Martin, South Dakota, in 1933 near the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. This month marked the 16th anniversary of his death on Nov. 13, 2005, in Golden, Colorado, at the age of 72.

Widely known for an extensive body of literature and oral histories, Vine Deloria Jr. authored the seminal 1969 book, “Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto,” the first of more than 20 books he would write during his distinguished academic career. Deloria earned a juris doctorate from Colorado Law in 1970 and taught at CU Boulder between 1990 and 2000.

Learn more about Deloria’s contributions to CU Boulder and the broader community and his research and scholarship by reading this Colorado Law tribute.

IDEA Council recommendations

The IDEA Council advanced three recommendations during its October meeting, including two to enhance professional development processes for staff and one to enhance an existing campus faculty mentoring program.

Council Co-chairs Lisa Flores and Teresa Hernández said “units across the campus that will house and lead these efforts will continue their conversations and lay the groundwork to begin implementation.”

Flores, a professor of communication and the associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion in the College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI), and Hernández, the diversity, equity and inclusion recruitment program manager in Human Resources, are leading the work of the representative council.

The 26 faculty, staff and student members of the council are prioritizing recommendations in the IDEA Plan, the campus’s roadmap for creating a more diverse and inclusive campus.  

Colloquium on anti-Asian racism during pandemic

The College of Media, Communication and Information (CMCI) is hosting a One College Colloquium on Dec. 2 that will explore anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featured speakers include ethnic studies professor Jennifer Ho, director of the CU Boulder Center for Humanities and the Arts, and CMCI associate professor of journalism Angie Chuang. The virtual event is free and open to students, faculty, staff and the public and will feature an audience Q&A.

Chuang, an award-winning reporter, and Ho, president of the Association for Asian American Studies and a leading voice in discussions about racism and racial justice, will discuss the rise of anti-Asian harassment across the globe since the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020.

Learn more about the event and how to register

Exploring place, identity, family and more

The School of Education has debuted a series of short talks focusing on some of today’s most pressing issues in education and beyond.

Titled “Ed Talks,” the series features engaging, eight-minute talks by the experienced educators and CU Boulder scholars who met last summer to design A Queer Endeavor’s annual Educator Institute for Equity and Justice––a two-day professional learning experience to support of K-12 educators and others who work with youths and want to learn equity and justice-focused practices.

A Queer Endeavor, housed in the School of Education, is a nationally recognized center for gender and sexual diversity in education that supports teachers and school communities to organize safer, more humanizing learning environments for LGBTQ+ youth, families and staff.

Check out the next Ed Talk, which will take place virtually at 5 p.m. on Dec. 2 and is free and open to the public.

Sustaining our practice of inclusion

Campus efforts and investments to address pressing and painful inequities at CU Boulder are only a beginning.

Creating a culture of belonging will take each member of our community practicing sustained personal work to truly embrace and support diverse perspectives and identities in our community.

This fall, Chancellor Philip DiStefano and other campus leaders urge every member of our community to join in learning more about diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism and to work continuously together to address these challenges more actively and in ways that can help authentically transform our campus culture in the coming year.