Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies
luhui.whitebear@oregonstate.edu

Office: 541-737-7831

Waldo Hall

Waldo Hall 282

2250 SW Jefferson Way

2250 SW Jefferson Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
Professional Affiliations: 
  • Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians
  • American Indian Caucus: Conference on College Composition and Communication
  • Centre for Global Indigenous Futures
  • Gamma Alpha Omega Sorority, Inc.
  • National Women's Studies Association
Education: 

PhD: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, OSU
MAIS: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Ethnic Studies; Queer Studies, OSU
BS: Anthropology, OSU
BS: Ethnic Studies, OSU

Service: 

Campus-based:

  • Core Leadership, President’s Commission on Indigenous Affairs
  • CLA Senator, Faculty Senate
  • Bias Response Team
  • Indigenous Peoples Day and Pow-Wow Planning Committees 
  • Advisory Council, Centro Cultural César Chávez
  • Faculty Mentor, Gamma Alpha Omega Sorority, Kappa Chapter
  • Faculty Mentor, M.E.Ch.A. (Movimiento Estudiatil Chican@s de Aztlan)
  • Faculty Mentor, SAFER (Students Active For Ending Rape) 

Profession-based:

  • Indigenous Peoples Caucus Chair, National Women's Studies Association
  • National Tribal Leaders Climate Summit Planning Committee, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians

Community-based:

  • Native American & Alaska Native Advisory Committee, Oregon Department of Education
  • Chair, Corvallis School Board
  • Chumash Community Working Group, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council
Honors and Awards: 
  • Servant Leader Award. Gamma Alpha Omega Sorority, Inc. 2023.
  • Bill and Caroline Wilkins Faculty Development Award. College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University. 2022.

  • Presidents Dissertation Award. Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric & Composition. 2021.

  • Outstanding Diversity Advocate Award. Office of Institutional Diversity at Oregon State University. 2019.

  • Student Affairs Service Award. Division of Student Affairs at Oregon State University. 2017.

Additional Information: 

Programs & initiatives affiliated with:

Profile Field Tabs

At OSU
Affiliated with: 
Sch Lang, Culture & Soc
Headquarters: 
OSU Main Campus
Courses Taught: 
  • ES 241: Introduction to Native American Studies
  • ES/WGSS 319: Feminist Decolonizing Methodologies: Social Justice Research
  • ES 345: Native Americans in Oregon
  • ES/WGSS/QS 375: Arts & Social Justice
  • ES 440/540: Indigenous Resistance & Pop Culture
  • ES 444/544: Native American Law: Tribes, Treaties, and the United States
  • ES 448/548: Native American Philosophies
  • ES/WGSS/QS 449/549: Indigenous Feminisms
  • HC 407: Water, Fish, Indigenous People, and the Planet 
  • WGSS/QS 476/576: Transnational Sexualities
Research/Career Interests: 

California Indigenous studies, Indigenous feminisms, Indigenous rhetorics, Indigenous activism, MMIW, national law & policy, Indigenous land & water rights.

Positionality statement:

I am enrolled with the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and have Huastec and Cochimi ancestry. I am also a mother, poet, and activist engaged in community work locally and statewide. Although originally from my Chumash peoples’ homelands in Santa Barbara, California, I spent most of my life in Oregon between the coast and Willamette Valley. I live and work on the lands of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, both of whom have been a big part of my life and I have family ties with. I was a first-generation college student and received all four of my degrees from Oregon State University where I am now an Assistant Professor for Indigenous Studies in the School of Language, Culture, and Society. As an Indigenous faculty member, I am committed to honoring and respecting the Tribal nations whose lands and waters our institution is situated on and interacts with. My research and work institutionally are informed by the Indigenous knowledge systems and beliefs I was raised with. Previously, I was the Center Director of the kaku-ixt mana ina haws at Oregon State University following my time as the College Advising and Scholarship Coordinator for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

Grants & Related Projects:

Co-PI: “BLM Pacific Northwest (PNW) Tribal Forest Restoration and Native Seed Project.” Department of Interior, $5M. Lead PI: Dr. Cristina Eisenberg, College of Forestry. Additional Co-PI's: Dean Thomas DeLuca, College of Forestry; Tom Kaye, Institute for Applied Ecology; Si Gao, Environmental Studies, California State University, Sacramento; Michael P Nelson, College of Forestry. https://tek.forestry.oregonstate.edu/home 

 

Publications

2024

Whitebear, Luhui, Kenlea Pebbles, and Stephen Gasteyer. “Resisting Extraction Of The Scared: Indigenous-Based Grassroots Resistance To Frontier Capitalism”. Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics In Localized Contexts. Ohio State University Press, 2024. Print. Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics In Localized Contexts.

 

2023

Whitebear, Luhui. “Resisting The Settler Gaze: California Indigenous Feminisms”. Feminist Formations 35.1 (2023): 97-116. Web. Feminist Formations.

Whitebear, Luhui. “Pen Of Molten Fire: Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask’s Writing As Indigenous Resistance”. American Indian Culture & Research Journal 46.1 (2023): 115-128. Web. American Indian Culture & Research Journal.

 

2022

Whitebear, Luhui. “Drifting Across Lines In The Sand: Unsettled Records And The Restoration Of Cultural Memories In Indigenous California”. The Routledge Companion To Gender And The American West. Routledge, 2022. Web. The Routledge Companion To Gender And The American West.

Whitebear, Luhui. “Women And Environmental Politics”. Women Worldwide:transnational Feminist Perspectives. 2nd ed. Oregon State University, 2022. Web. Women Worldwide:transnational Feminist Perspectives.

Whitebear, Luhui. “On Data Sovereignty, Counter Colonial Storytelling, And Indigenous Resistance: An Interview With Luhui Whitebear”. 2022. Web.

 

2021

Furman, Kali et al. “Women And Religion In North America”. Women And Religion: Global Lives In Focus. ABC-CLIO, 2021. 1-36. Print. Women And Religion: Global Lives In Focus.

Whitebear, Luhui. “Interlocking Communities Of Care: A Bipoc Map Through Academia”. Rhetoric Review: Symposium: Diversity is not Enough: Mentorship and Community-Building as Antiracist Praxis 40.3 (2021): n. pag. Web. Rhetoric Review: Symposium: Diversity Is Not Enough: Mentorship And Community-Building As Antiracist Praxis.

Whitebear, Luhui. “2020 & The Elections Can’t Stop Us: Hashtagging Change Through Indigenous Activism”. Spark: A 4C4Equality Journal (2021): n. pag. Web. Spark: A 4C4Equality Journal.

Whitebear, Luhui, and Rachel Black Elk. “Opb Interview: As Land Acknowledgments Become More Common, Indigenous People Grapple With Next Steps”. 2021. Web.

 

2020

Whitebear, Luhui, and Daniel Cespedes. “Song Of The Salmon”. 2020. Web.

Whitebear, Luhui. “Disrupting Systems Of Oppression By Re-Centering Indigenous Feminisms”. Persistence Is Resistance: Celebrating 50 Years Of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies . University of Washington, 2020. Web. Persistence Is Resistance: Celebrating 50 Years Of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies.

 

2019

Whitebear, Luhui. “Vawa Reauthorization Of 2013 And The Continued Legacy Of Violence Against Indigenous Women: A Critical Outsider Jurisprudence Perspective”. University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review 9.1 (2019): 75-89. Web. University Of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review.