Conference Speakers
Dr. Jeff Corntassel
Professor Indigenous Governance Program,
University of Victoria
Jeff Corntassel (Cherokee Nation), received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Arizona in 1998. Corntassel is currently Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Indigenous Governance Programs at the University of Victoria. His research and teaching interests include global Indigenous rights, Indigenous political mobilization/self-determination movements, and international law/organizations.
While teaching at Virginia Tech (1997-2002), Corntassel was Associate Director of the Race and Social Policy Research Center and co-founded the first American Indian Studies program in the Commonwealth of Virginia by establishing partnerships with Virginia's eight state-recognized Indigenous nations.
Corntassel was awarded the Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Professor of the Year award in 1997/98 and 2000/01 and served as the Cherokee Nation delegate to the annual meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1999 and 2000. In 2004, he was selected for inclusion in the eighth edition of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.
Corntassel’s first book, entitled Forced Federalism: Contemporary Challenges to Indigenous Nationhood (Forthcoming, University of Oklahoma Press), examines how Indigenous nations in the U.S. mobilize politically during the 1990's up to the present day as they encounter new threats to their nations at the state and federal levels of governance.
Another one of Corntassel’s current research projects is an edited volume in collaboration with Professor Tom Holm entitled The Power of Peoplehood: Contemporary Indigenous Community-Building (Forthcoming, University of Texas Press), which brings together native scholars from Canada and the U.S to discuss contemporary struggles of cultural and political regeneration within Indigenous communities.
Other works in progress examine global Indigenous political mobilization during the United Nations' 1st "Indigenous decade" (1995-2004) and a comparative critique of state apologies/truth and reconciliation efforts as they impact Indigenous nations in Canada, Australia, Guatemala and Peru. Corntassel’s research has been published in: American Indian Quarterly, Ayaangwaamizin, Canadian Foreign Policy, Global Governance, Human Rights Quarterly, Nationalism and Ethnic Studies, and Social Science Journal.