Co-edited by Crystal M. Fleming, Veronica Y. Womack, and NAISI-affiliated Brown University faculty member Jeffrey Proulx, Beyond White Mindfulness: Critical Perspectives on Racism, Well-being, and Liberation (Routledge Press) brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on mind-body interventions, group-based identities, and social justice. Marshaling both empirical data and theoretical approaches, the book examines a broad range of questions related to mindfulness, meditation, and diverse communities.

While there is growing public interest in mind-body health, holistic wellness, and contemplative practice, critical research on these topics featuring minority perspectives and experiences is relatively rare. This book draws on cutting edge insights from psychology, sociology, gender, and critical race theory to fill this void. Major themes include: culture, identity, and awareness; intersectional approaches to the study of mindfulness and minority stress; cultural competence in developing and teaching mindfulness-based health interventions; and the complex relationships between mindfulness, inequality, and social justice. The first book of its kind to bring together scholarly and personal reflections on mindfulness for diverse populations, Beyond White Mindfulness offers social science students and practitioners in this area a new perspective on mindfulness and suggestions for future scholarship.

NAISI-affiliated faculty member Neil Safier is Associate Professor in the Department of History and, as of recently, serves as Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS). He also maintains affiliations with the Department of Hispanic Studies, the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). One of the faculty members involved in the development of NAIS at Brown for years, Dr. Safier is developing a new course entitled "Curators, Hoarders, and Looters: The Long and Curious History of Collecting," to be offered in the spring semester 2024 and supported by course development funds from NAISI’s Mellon Foundation grant to develop NAIS at Brown. 

Parker VanValkenburgh (Anthropology Dept.) will serve as a Long-Term Faculty Sabbatical Support Fellow at the John Carter Brown (JCB) Library during the 2023-24 academic year. His research will focus on “Unstable Ground: Settlement and Indigeneity in the Colonial Americas.” VanValkenburgh's fellowship is critical in bringing together those who seek and who will share knowledge about the early Americas, especially as the JCB opens their newly renovated front doors and digital space. Learn more about fellowship opportunities at the JCB, including the newly launched Research Fellowship for Indigenous Communities.

Organized by the Simmon's Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University, Williams College, and Mystic Seaport Museum, Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom aims to foreground the silenced stories of Indigenous and African American experiences of New England. Deploying maritime histories and using the sea as a connecting element, the project will foreground the single and sometimes intertwined histories of Indigenous and Black communities.  As a project, it seeks to highlight how the Indigenous communities and Black communities made sustained vigorous efforts to create spaces for their self-determination, freedom and cultural sovereignty in New England. In telling these stories the project will displace the myth of the founding of the New England colonies as a “city on the hill.”  

Led by Professor of History Linford Fisher, Stolen Relations (formerly the Database of Indigenous Slavery in the Americas) is a community-centered database project funded by Brown University and the National Endowment for the Humanities that seeks to illuminate and understand the role the enslavement of Indigenous peoples played in settler colonialism over time. 

Luiz Paulo Ferraz, a PhD candidate in History from Brazil, spent the summer of 2023 traveling through various Brazilian cities. His journey involved interviewing Indigenous leaders, their allies, and government officials while examining historical documents in private and public archives. All this is part of his research for his dissertation, tentatively titled "Becoming 'the Real Climate Leaders:' The Rise of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples as Environmental Defenders in the Global Political Arena." Luiz Paulo's work looks at how Indigenous and environmental issues overlapped during the Brazilian military dictatorship era (1964-1985) and its aftermath, and how this influenced debates on Indigenous and environmental rights both within and outside of Brazil. Next, Luiz Paulo plans to visit Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, and other cities in the Amazon region to further his dissertation research.

This Public Humanities capstone project by Fellow for the Study of the Public History of Slavery, Chandra Marshall (MA ʻ20), focuses on the intersections between African American and Native American histories. Connecting the work of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice with that of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative, Marshall created a committee which guided the project’s scope and connected her to local artists. The artists, Becci Davis, Sherente Harris (Narragansett), Nia Holley (Nipmuc), and Jordan Seaberry ranged from metalworkers to portrait painters. In interviews, Davis, Harris, Holley, and Seaberry reflected on their heritages, possibilities for expanding their work, and hopes for the future.

Undergraduate student Kalikoonāmaukūpuna Kalāhiki spent their summer at a traditional taro farm, known as a loʻi kalo, in their home island of Oʻahu. At the farm, they engage with traditional Hawaiian practices of kalo (taro) cultivation to build deep connections with their land, culture, and community. Through growing kalo, they are able to educate their community about Hawaiian moʻolelo (stories), building pilina (relationships) to ʻāina (land) that are based on reciprocity, and the importance of food sovereignty. Their role was to assist with day-to-day operations, such as harvesting, weeding, and maintaining the patches, as well as occasionally leading groups who came to the farm to volunteer. 

Brown University Sophomore Ma'iingan E Wolf Garvin is one of six students selected as part of the 31st cohort of the Brown Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship (MMUF) Program, a prestigious undergraduate fellowship involving research under a faculty mentor, funding support, and loan repayment to pursue graduate study in the humanities. The program aims to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in faculty positions at colleges and universities.

Ma’iingan plans to concentrate in Environmental Studies (Inequality track). Ma’iingan’s research is a multidisciplinary project at the intersection of environmental studies, linguistic anthropology, and critical Native American and Indigenous Studies. Using oral histories and ethnographic approaches, she plans to examine linguistic and traditional ecological knowledges of the Hoocak and Ojibwe peoples, specifically how Indigenous methods of land stewardship and ways of land caretaking can be incorporated into modern conservation and climate activism. In the future, Ma’iingan plans to continue her research in a PhD program in Ethnic or Indigenous Studies. She writes, “I know that being strongly rooted in communities here and at home will provide me with the foundation and frameworks I need to become a proficient researcher and teacher.” 

Makana Kushi is a PhD candidate in Brown's American Studies program and has taught at Brown and the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. After coursework and teaching (and learning from) awesome undergraduates in the precursor to "Learning Our Native Languages" and "Indigenous Resurgence: Roots, Reclamations, and Relations" at Brown, Makana moved to Hilo to research and teach from her beloved hometown. There, she has been teaching "Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies" and "Kuleana and Community," a place-based learning course orienting UH Hilo students to the Native place names, storied histories, environmental rhythms, and value systems of Hawaiʻi Island.

Undergraduate student Ariana Clark spent the summer of 2023 working with the Tribal Youth Empowerment Corporation's summer program for Native youth. They met for a few hours a day, 5 days a week, for the majority of the summer at the Knight Memorial Library. Activities ranged from making beaded keychains to creating resumes and business ventures. They learned about foods and medicines native to Rhode Island and across their different cultures through making tobacco pouches, smudging with Northeast white sage, combining Manoomin with cranberries and maple syrup, and learning how to make fry bread together. She was able to share her finance knowledge and teach financial literacy classes, including how to save for large purchases and understanding credit. They also had help from so many community members through learning about health topics with NABA member Jennifer Weston (Hunkpapa Lakota, Standing Rock, Brown '97), a tour at the Tomaquag Museum with Lynsea Montanari, job readiness lessons with Youth Moving Forward RI, and a tour of the youth garden, community gardens, and City Farm with the Southside Community Land Trust. They finished the summer with a powwow at the Algonquin House hosted by TYEC and the Rhode Island Indian Council (RIIC), where the kids helped to make and sell fry bread, sold their own earrings and bracelets, and danced with drumming and stories from Juan Hazard. 

Chase Bryer, Chickasaw PhD student in Behavioral and Social Health Sciences and NAISI Graduate Student Program Coordinator, continued his work with the Two-Spirit Dry Lab (2SDL) during the summer of 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia. 2SDL is Turtle Island’s first research group that focuses exclusively on Two-Spirit people, communities, and experiences. The lab works to promote culturally responsive practices in sex and gender research and to grow new knowledge(s) that can be applied to improve the lives, health and/or wellbeing of Two-Spirit and other Indigenous people. His upcoming work in summer 2023 is supported by the Lighting Up Native Aspirations (LUNA) program through the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at the University of Washington. In May 2023, Chase attended the second annual Two-Spirit Dry Lab strategic planning retreat. The retreat brought together Lab members for team building, strategic planning, and collaborative work.