NCID-1801
Leece Lee-Oliver
Assistant Professor of Women's Studies & Director of American Indian Studies
California State University, Fresno
Education/Degree:
1 Comparative Ethnic Studies & Native American Studies (University of California, Berkeley)
About
Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver's research and activism centralize American Indian, indigenous, and third world decolonialism. Her work engages oral tradition, law, critical auto-ethnography, and cultural-artistic expression to explore how American Indian, transnational indigenous, and subaltern peoples respond to colonial, hetero-patriarchal, white supremacist oppression locally and globally. Her current project interrogates the contemporary epidemic rate of violence against American Indian women and girls as a by-product of coloniality and pays homage to American Indian women leaders. Dr. Lee-Oliver serves on the board of the Fresno American Indian Health Project, which provides cultural and wellness services to American Indians in the Central Valley.
Current Work
Dr. Lee-Oliver is currently developing an interdisciplinary American Indian studies program at Fresno State, mentoring students, and working with regional Tribes. Her recent projects include the development of a digital archive of the history of the AIS program, assisting with the research for a tribal restoration project, and drafting a methodological strategy for understanding "urban Indian" communities. She is on the last leg of writing a book manuscript that examines the roots of "anti-Indianism" at the root of the current epidemic rate of violence against Native American women and girls and an article on the aesthetics at the heart of white supremacy. Dr. Lee-Oliver recently given talks on the historical laws that made all women and girls vulnerable to state and societal violence at the 2018 "Take Back the Night" event and another talk on Native American wellness based on lessons she has learned from elders and traditional Native Americans who still follow the active lifestyles and clean diets that are typical in precolonial Native American communities. Lastly, Dr. Lee-Oliver helped create a computer coding course for Native American youth in our community to increase their access to STEM. She also helped create a Mixtec culture and language certificate class. Both of these classes just wrapped up this fall.
Research Area Keyword(s)
decolonialism, Native Americans, women of color feminisms