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Indigenous Studies Symposium

4 people posing by a maroon and orange poster for the 2025 indigenous studies symposium
professor stands at the front of a room behind a wooden podium presenting at the sypmosium to an audience full of people
5 symposium attendees pose against a yellow wall in the corner of the room where the event was held.

This year our theme is reciprocity. It is not uncommon, though not universal, that Indigenous communities have reciprocal relationships with ancestors, plants, the land, waterways, and other beings. Existing on earth is not about taking; it is about mutual care, support, and contribution. This symposium invites conversations on the ways in which mutual work and responsibilities shape, form, exemplify, or strengthen Indigenous communities.

October 5, 2026 | Indigenous Studies Symposium | The Inn at Virginia Tech, 9 a.m. - 5 p. m.

Join us for Virginia Tech's second annual Indigenous Studies Symposium! We will have an array of Virginia Tech and visiting scholars. See below for the full schedule and details on each of the four panels. 

8:45 a.m. | Monacan Welcome Ceremony 

9:00 – 9:15 a.m. | Introductions

  • Laura Belmonte | Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
  • Melissa Faircloth | Director of Ati: Wa:oki and Senior Advisor of Native Affairs 
  • Edward Anthony Polanco | Director of the Indigenous Studies Program at Virginia Tech

9:15 - 10:45 a.m. | Data Sovereignty panel
Moderator: Yubidixi Jimenez-Castañeda 

  • Yo'oko Salazar, Portland State University | “The Oldest Logic, the Newest Infrastructure: Indigenous Data Sovereignty & the Terms of Reciprocity"
  • Sarah Stanley, Virginia Tech Libraries | "Nurturing Data: Reciprocity through Indigenous Librarianship"
  • Desiree Shelley, Indigenous Conservation Council | "Taking our Data Back"            

11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Indigeneity and Southern Identity panel 
Moderator: Melissa Faircloth

  • Harley Locklear (Lumbee), Virginia Tech | "Queer, Indigenous, and Southern: Living Beyond the Boundaries of Belonging" 
  • Emily Wilkins (Monacan), Virginia Tech | “Rooted & Rising: Balance and Harmony Across Indigenous and Southern Traditions"
  • Lawrence T. Locklear (Lumbee), UNC Pembroke | "Lumbee and Uniquely Southern: 'We claim y’all too!'''
  • Paul Worley, App State | "We are good men': Indigenous Reciprocity, Rebellion, and (Mis)Recognition in Spanish Colonial Documents from the US Southeast"

12:30 – 1:25 p.m. | Lunch

1:30 – 3:00 p.m. | Cross Generational Community Building panel
Moderator: Zero Miller

  • Jessica Taylor, Virginia Tech | “At the Country Crossroads: Family, Culture, and Intergenerational Knowledge”
  • Jessica Langdorf (Pamunkey), Algonquian Intertribal Roundtable | “Connecting Through and Protecting Our Languages”
  • Lisa Brighteyes Richardson-Deresz, OTR/L (Rappahannock) | “Healing our Indigenous Identity Across Generations"

3:15 – 4:45 p.m. | Place Based Methodologies panel
Moderator: Annie Shaba

  • Yubidixi Jimenez-Castañeda, Virginia Tech | "Grounding the Cosmos: Ritual Geography and Ascent of Mount Tlaloc in Central Mexico"
  • Sarah Richardson, University of Virginia | “Continuing Praxis: Indigenous Partnerships in Writing Classrooms"
  • Melissa D. Birkhofer, App State | “Causing Disorders: Indigenous Women's Agency in Spanish Colonial Documents from the U.S. Southeast"
  • Andrea Holm, University of Arizona | "Place in Poetry"