Syracuse University to use grant award to create new center focused on Indigenous culture

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University will use a grant of $1.5 million over three years to create the multi-disciplinary Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice.

The grant will also “expand and enhance” curriculum and course offerings in Native American and Indigenous studies.

The New York City–based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the grant funding.

Scott Manning Stevens — associate professor and director of the Native American and Indigenous studies program — will serve as executive director of the new center. He is a 2021-22 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

“Even though there is tremendous diversity among Indigenous peoples, there are global Indigenous issues that span places like Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Canada and the United States and some parts of South America, [and] there are common experiences of settler colonialism and common environmental challenges with a global reach,” Stevens said in the Syracuse news release.

He went on to say that the center will explore options for Indigenous communities to take on common challenges such as cultural-heritage preservation and language revitalization, defending political sovereignty, and climate change and the environment.

“I congratulate the Syracuse University team that created this compelling proposal for the Mellon Foundation’s highly competitive grants process,” Syracuse University Provost Gretchen Ritter said. “The project addresses all aspects of teaching, research and service in global Indigenous studies. It will create opportunities for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students to explore how Indigenous cultures can add to perspectives from across academic disciplines and provide insight into solutions for some of the world’s most pressing problems.”