Our Mission
Since its founding in 1991, the Indigenous Research Center of the Americas (IRCA) has served as a forum for sharing knowledge and reflections on indigenous cultures and the inherent decolonial struggles for higher levels of autonomy, sovereignty, and self-determination in Native nations across the hemisphere. IRCA is in the process of developing new projects that leverage digital tools to connect more allies, scholars and scientists with indigenous communities throughout the Americas and to share expertise in the protocols and ethics of engagement with native peoples to enhance multidisciplinary collaborations in the university setting as well as in community led projects outside of the university.
As a Native American Studies (NAS) department-affiliated institute, the center is dedicated to enriching the hemispheric focus of the department (via visiting scholars, student scholarships, field schools, colloquia, etc.). IRCA serves as a virtual and physical nexus through which communities, NGOs, social movements, tribal governments can connect with scholars, find support for resistance and revitalization movements, and open new dialogues across disciplinary, cultural and geographic boundaries.
Our Vision
IRCA will maintain and improve upon its original mission with an initial focus on creating mechanisms for the repatriation and dissemination of research to indigenous communities, scholars, and leaders through its Cultural Resource Libraries project. New technology and social media will also be harnessed to continue to foster collaborations with community-driven research and reciprocal processes of experiential learning and engaged pedagogy.
Since its founding in 1991, IRCA has served as a forum for sharing knowledge and reflections on indigenous culture sand the inherent decolonial struggles for higher levels of autonomy, sovereignty, and self-determination in Native nations across the hemisphere. IRCA is in the process of developing new projects that leverage digital tools to connect more allies, scholars and scientists with indigenous communities throughout the Americas and to sensitize them to the protocols and ethics of engagement with native peoples.
As a Native American Studies (NAS) department-affiliated institute, the center is dedicated to enriching the hemispheric focus of the department (via visiting scholars, student scholarships, field schools, colloquia, etc.). IRCA serves as a virtual and physical nexus through which communities, NGOs, social movements, tribal governments can connect with scholars, find support for resistance and revitalization movements, and open new dialogues across disciplinary, cultural and geographic boundaries.