About This Course
Building on the race course, this To Be Welcoming course focuses on bias and the experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples in the United States. Here, we explore how different biases affect the economic, social, and cultural experiences of Indigenous peoples. We begin with key terms like sovereignty and tribe, followed by a video module featuring faculty experts answering commonly asked questions. Next, we provide context by exploring media representations of American Indians, cultural traditions, and education. We conclude with points for starting your own discussions on American Indian/Alaskan Native bias and considering appropriate responses.
Learners who complete this course will earn a digital certificate of completion.
Meet Your Instructors
Dr. Jessica Solyom
Associate Research Professor
School of Social Transformation
Arizona State University
Jessica Solyom, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Justice and Social Inquiry from Arizona State University. She has worked in research, program development, and program evaluation for postsecondary institutions in promoting diversity in curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom management for over 10 years. Her research focuses on diversity, belonging, and justice. Her scholarly publications have explored the justice-related struggles of historically underrepresented students including explorations of race and gender in student leadership, persistence for students of color in predominantly white postsecondary settings, and education rights activism among Indigenous college students. She is currently an Associate Research Professor and teaches courses on Research and Inquiry, Critical Race Theory, and Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Dr. Solyom serves as a mentor at the Center for Indian Education (ASU) in preparing and training rising students of color as community embedded researchers and servant-leaders.
Dr. Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy
Special Advisor to the President on American Indian Affairs
President’s Professor
School of Social Transformation
Director, Center for Indian Education
Arizona State University
Bryan is President’s Professor in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. He is the author of over 90 scholarly products. His research focuses on the role of race and diversity in higher education, and the experiences of Indigenous students, staff, and faculty in institutions of higher education.
Video Contributors
Dr. Marisa Duarte
Assistant Professor of Justice and Social Inquiry
School of Social Transformation
Arizona State University
Marisa Duarte researches problems of information, knowledge, and technology in Native American and Indigenous contexts. For example, her most recent work examines tensions between wearable technologies, privacy, and well-being among marginalized peoples, specifically among Indigenous and Mexican American women. She also investigates Native and Indigenous peoples uses of social media, construction of large-scale digital infrastructures, and interfaces that allow for the circulation of Indigenous ways of knowing. Her work requires understanding of Western and Indigenous philosophies of science and technology, as well as Indigenous concepts of justice.
Mark Trahant
Editor at Indian Country Today
Mark Trahant is editor of Indian Country Today. Trahant was recently elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Trahant is the former editor of the editorial page for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer where he chaired the daily editorial board, directed a staff of writers, editors and a cartoonist. He has also worked at The Seattle Times, Arizona Republic, The Salt Lake Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, the Navajo Times, Navajo Nation Today and the Sho-Ban News. Trahant is a member of Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and former president of the Native American Journalists Association.
