Remembering and Reclaiming Tovaangar

Friday, March 3, 2023
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library, Presentation Room 11348

Over the last decade, history, education, and Indigenous studies scholars have worked at dismembering the foundations of higher education through extensive research, drawing attention to the role of colleges and universities in the physical dispossession of Indigenous peoples. In this talk, Dr. Ambo will discuss the role of the University of California in the dispossession of California Indian people across three waves of colonization. Focusing on Gabrieliño-Tongva and UCLA, Dr. Ambo will connect the present-day campus to the illegal seizure of lands by Spanish missionaries, the secularization of mission lands under Mexican governance, and the privatization of lands by individual owners under U.S. authority. Finally, she will broadly consider mechanisms for increasing institutional accountability to local Native nations and communities.

Theresa Jean Ambo is an assistant professor and co-director of the Indigenous Futures Institute at the University of California, San Diego. She holds a B.A., M.Ed., and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Theresa’s research examines relationships between Native nations and public universities. She also collaborates with community members and colleagues to examine settler land acknowledgment statements and histories of universities. Her research has been funded by the Spencer, Lumina, and William T. Grant Foundations and published in Social Text, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, American Educational Research Journal, and The Journal of Higher Education. Theresa is Gabrieliño-Tongva, descending from the villages of Jaibpet and Tobpet.

Event venue possible with support of UCLA Library.