Faculty and Research

Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver (Blackfeet, Choctaw, Wyandot, Cherokee), Ph.D. UC Berkeley, is a scholar and activist whose work is dedicated to understanding how American Indians, Indigenous peoples, and marginalized peoples experience and respond to national policies and societal beliefs that pose challenges to their sovereignty, safety, and security. Her teaching and writing reflect the transgressive political work of Red feminist and Third World liberation scholars. Leece’s book manuscript, Red Feminist Roots: American Indian Women, Coloniality, and the Liturgies of Death and Life, examines the phenomenon of American Indian women’s racialization during colonialism to consider how the trope of “the squaw” foments violence against American Indian women and children today. The book pays homage to the legacies of resistance in American Indian activism and shows how American Indian communities draw on cultural traditions to navigate anti-“Indian” violence and promote and protect the lifeways of American Indians today. 

Dr. Lee-Oliver's current work includes research and consultation on the contemporary epidemic rate of violence against American Indian women and girls, American Indian wellness practices, and creating support systems for American Indian youth. Dr. Lee-Oliver is the Fresno State University representative in the California State University Chancellor's Native American Initiative. She serves on the board of the Fresno American Indian Health Project, which provides cultural and wellness services to American Indians in the Central Valley. She is also Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies.

Office: Social Sciences Building, 106B

Phone: 559-278-5839

Email: lleeoliver@mail.fresnostate.edu

Professor Kenneth N. Hansen, Ph.D. Texas Tech University, Political Science and History, holds a joint appointment in both the Political Science Dept., where he mostly teaches public administration and policy, and the American Indian Studies program. He was the Co-Coordinator of the then-Africana and American Indian Studies program from 2007-2010. He also served as a faculty advisor for the Native American student group and a leader of the Fresno State Powwow Committee for more than a dozen years. Dr. Hansen has taught the following courses for the American Indian Studies program over the years: Contemporary Life of the American Indian, Indians of California, American Indian Law, and topics courses on Tribal Governance and Self-Determination. He has worked with President Joseph Castro on the CSU system and Fresno State Native American Initiatives. He was a founding member and the first Chair of the Fresno State American Indian Faculty and Staff Association, which hosts the annual American Indian graduation dinner and ceremony. He also was the leader and key faculty member of the Native American Scholars learning community, which existed from 2015-2017. When not on campus, Dr. Hansen serves as tribal staff for the Chalon Indian Nation, located in Bakersfield, CA.

Dr. Hansen is a co-editor (with Tracy A. Skopek) and contributor to the anthology The New Politics of Indian Gaming (2011, University of Nevada Press). He has over a dozen refereed publications in such journals as Administration & Society, American Review of Politics, American Review of Public Administration, Green Theory & Praxis, Politics & Policy, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, and Administrative Theory & Praxis. He is a former co-editor of Green Theory & Praxis and regularly reviews manuscripts from other journals.

Office: McKee Fisk 218

Phone: 559-278-2260

E-mail: kennethh@csufresno.edu

Dr. John Pryor is an Archeologist in the Anthropology Department. Dr. Pryor has over 25 years of field experience mostly working in California, with additional experience in England, and the Eastern US. Dr. Pryor's area of expertise is California Archeology and he is actively involved in teacher education. In addition to teaching and conducting field work, he offers specialized courses designed for teachers or future teachers ranging in topics from Archeology in the classroom, Sierran Prehistory,  California Native Plants and their uses by Native Americans, and Ancient Empires.

In addition to these areas of expertise, I have a long standing interest in Human evolution, and have worked as a forensic archeologist collecting data at murder sites. Dr. Pryor's Lab and archaeological sites provide opportunities to students to do fieldwork.

Office: Peters Building 254 | Lab: MCL 212

Phone: 559-278-5150 

Email: johnp@mail.fresnostate.edu

Dr. Sydney Beckmann earned her Ph.D. in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, where she was a Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellow. Her research is interdisciplinary and intersects the areas of religion, race, and colonialism. She focuses on the legacy of colonial discourse and its effect on urban Indigeneity, particularly how government policies and rhetoric around urbanity perpetuate colonial ideologies designed to erase Indigenous people and further entrench settler colonial domination of Indigenous lands. Her teaching and research engage critical Indigenous theory and center theories and methodologies around relationality.

Dr. Beckmann’s current book project, The Pan-Indian Problem: Relationality Within and Beyond Colonialism, explores the largely under-researched topic of pan-Indianism. By analyzing the constructed association between pan-Indianism and urban spaces, the project explores how the concepts of religion and race have contributed to the historical production of cities as anti-Indigenous spaces and, concomitantly, how cities have become spaces for Indigenous resistance to colonization, exploitation, and oppression.

Degree/School: Ph.D. in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ

Areas of Expertise: Indigenous religious traditions, pan-Indianism, urban Indigeneity

Research Interests: pan-Indianism, urban Indigeneity, critical Indigenous theory, theories and methodologies around relationality

Teaching Interests: Indigenous and decolonizing methodologies, religion and colonization, Indigeneity and the historical production of urban spaces

Office: Social Sciences Building, 217

Email: sbeckmann@mail.fresnostate.edu

Degree/School: Ph.D. University of Iowa.

Area(s) of Expertise: American Indian environmental struggles and sovereignty movements, TEK, and Environmental Humanities.

Research Interests: Nuclear colonialism and the militarization of Indigenous lands, resource extractivism, and water security in the American West.

Teaching Interests: Critical Indigenous Studies, American Indian Environmentalism, Sovereignty, History, Literature, and Digital Humanities.

Areas of Research: American Indian Education, American Indian/Indigenous Pedagogies, and Tribal Curriculum. 

Office: Social Sciences Building, 106

Phone: 559-278-6237

Email: davidalvarez@mail.fresnostate.edu

Areas of Research: Native California, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Cultural Revitalization, Chumash Material Culture, California History, Basketweaving.

Office: Social Sciences Building, 106

Phone: 559-278-6237

Email: mcristinagonzales@mail.fresnostate.edu

Areas of Research: American Indian Literature, Autobiography and Poetics, Intellectual History and Rhetoric. 

Office: Social Sciences Building, 106

Phone: 559-278-6237

Email: michaelmcdaniel@csufresno.edu