Faculty Advisory Committee

The UCLA American Indian Studies Center Faculty Advisory Committee comprises of members from different departments all over the campus. Click on each individual members' research focus to read more about them.

Members of the FAC are available for contact by the media: Media Contact List.

Faculty Advisory Committee Chair
	Professor Peter Nabokov Department of World Arts and Cultures Email: pnabokov@arts.ucla.edu Research Focus Anthropologist and writer, Nabokov has conducted ethnographic and ethnohistorical research with Native American communities throughout North America.
Members of the Faculty Advisory Committee
	Professor Stephen Aron Department of History Email: saron@history.ucla.edu Research Focus North American Frontiers and American West; Early National U.S.
	Assistant Professor Keith Camacho Department of Asian American Studies Email: kcamacho@ucla.edu Research Focus American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Indigenous Studies, Micronesian Studies, Pacific Islands Studies, Postcolonial Studies.
	Associate Professor Jessica Cattelino Department of Anthropology Email: jesscatt@anthro.ucla.edu Research Focus Sociocultural anthropology, citizenship and sovereignty, indigeneity and settler colonialism, economy and value, gender, environment, American public culture, Indian gaming; United States, Native North America.
	Professor Duane Champagne Department of Sociology Email: champagn@ucla.edu Research Focus My interests focus on processes of social change and institutionalization. Empirically, I have looked at institutional change and variation among native American societies and their social, economic and political responses to Western influences (i.e. incorporation into the world system, geopolitical competition and trans-societal cultural interactions). Other related interests include theory, historical and comparative analysis, and fieldwork.
	Assistant Professor Mishuana Goeman Department of Women's Studies Email: goeman@women.ucla.edu Research Focus
	Professor Paul Kroskrity Department of Anthropology Email: paulvk@ucla.edu Research Focus Language and culture, language contact, language and identity, language ideologies, anthropology and verbal art, and the ethnography of communication; American Indian Languages (especially the Kiowa-Tanoan and Uto-Aztecan families); the Pueblo Southwest, Central California.
	Professor Vickie Mays Department of Clinical Psychology Email: maysv@nicco.sscnet.ucla.edu Research Focus My research is shaped by underlying themes reflecting my interests in furthering empirically based research on underserved populations, particularly ethnic minority communities and women: 1) explicating factors related to threats to physical and mental health among underserved populations, 2) guiding policy development pertinent to these issues, and 3} developing new methodologies to advance the development of science that is responsive to the health and mental health care needs of underserved populations. Currently the work of our research group is focused in three areas with ethnic minority and vulnerable populations .My research team examine mental health disorders using large- scale datasets to determine prevalence of types of disorders that are found in racial/ethnic group with a particular attention to gender. Important in this work are efforts to determine the contextual factors that help explain the differences in mental health disorders. In ethnic/racial populations we look at gender, discrimination (both perceived and actual), SES, social capital and a number of structural factors. In sexual minorities we again try and extend the thinking on how social status and contextual issues function in mental and physical health to understand psychiatric disorders, risk for HIV infection, physical diseases (cancer, CVD, diabetes) and help-seeking for mental and physical health care. We are interested in how all of this translates into better practices for providers and public policies that can enhance the overall physical and mental well-being of vulnerable populations.
	Assistant Professor Nancy Reifel School of Dentistry Email: nancyr@dent.ucla.edu Research Focus
	Professor Greg Schachner Department of Anthropology Email: gschachner@anthro.ucla.edu Research Focus North American archaeology, population movement, origins of villages and leadership in agricultural societies, settlement systems and analysis, ceramic analysis, social context of archaeological practice; American Southwest.
	Professor David Shorter Department of World Arts and Culture Email: shorter@ucla.edu Research Focus My particular research draws from collaborative relationships with Yoeme (Yaqui) Indians in Northwest Mexico. Since 1992, I have been involved in the study of ethnographic representation of Yoeme religiosity. Traveling to Potam Pueblo almost every year, I continue to research Yoeme ritual performances and am attempting to bring that research into the area of digital resources: archives, language revitalization, digital video and popular as well as academic essays. I am fortunate to have some close friends from the tribe who help with linguistic considerations as well as appropriate political relations. I hope my work speaks to those Yoeme individuals living away from the Sonoran homelands, as well as to those continuing to live in Potam and the other pueblos surrounding the Hiak Vatwe. To better understand my field research, feel free to visit my digital publication.
	Professor Kevin Terraciano Department of History Email: terra@history.ucla.edu Research Focus Colonial Latin American history, especially Mexico and the indigenous cultures and languages of central and southern Mexico.
	Professor Angela Riley (Director), ex officio School of Law Email: riley@law.ucla.edu Research Focus Her research focuses on issues related to indigenous peoples’ rights, with a particular emphasis on cultural property and Native governance.