By Julia Park
For the more than 1,500 new faculty members joining the University of Washington this fall, adjusting to a brand-new community of colleagues and students may be daunting. But for four new American Indian and Alaska Native hires, many of those foundations have already been laid.
John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, German, Chicano) said that he first began visiting campus around 2013 at the invitation of professors in the School of Music. The relationships he built with students and faculty over the next 10 years, along with the histories of Native activism in the region, drew him to the UW.
“Cluster hires are particularly important for AIS because so much of our research draws on the strength of our relationships to our communities and to other Indigenous scholars,” Radocay said. “A growing community allows us to build and strengthen the kinds of relationships that are vital to our work.”
Now hired as an associate professor in the School of Music, Perea said that he looks forward to exploring the need for greater crossover between music and Native studies. It’s a topic that his wife and fellow hire, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies Jessica Bissett Perea (Dena’ina), has also explored in her research.
“I anticipate working with her and her colleagues in American Indian Studies (AIS) to explore that and figure out what it can mean in the context of the UW and the many communities it serves,” Perea continued.
The Pereas’ plans are just one example of the collaboration possible from the College of Arts & Sciences’ cluster hire in AIS. Benefiting from prior contact with one another and conversations across departments that began during the application process, these new faculty members are already getting connected to a community of Indigenous scholars helping the University better represent the people it serves.
Born and raised in coastal Alaska, new Assistant Professor of AIS and Geography Jen Rose Smith (dAXunhyuu, Eyak, Alaska Native) said that the UW’s location was important to her.
“It feels comfortable and correct to be back near the salt water, mountains and the wet weather that I am so familiar with and cherish,” Smith said.
Smith’s soon-to-be colleague Jessica Bissett Perea also said that Washington state feels like a second home, and looked forward to collaborating with the other hires, all three of whom she has worked with before. She and Smith both mentioned their hope to build more Alaska Native courses at the UW.
“I am really looking forward to joining a dynamic department, with colleagues who are leaders in their fields, at an institution that supports the expansion of Indigenous knowledges across campus,” Bissett Perea said.
Embedded in the concept of a cluster hire is the emphasis on building a community and inviting new hires to see themselves as part of a greater whole, rather than occupying a single position, according to the Office for Faculty Advancement.
Chadwick Allen, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement and Professor of English, chaired the search committee for the Department of English position, and Chair of AIS Christopher Teuton also served on the committee to ensure close communication between the two departments. Finalists from the English department interviews later met with faculty from AIS and the Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies (CAIIS), and finalists from AIS met with others outside of their department as well.
New Assistant Professor of English Jonathan Radocay (Cherokee Nation) said he was drawn to the efforts of CAIIS to build relationships and knowledge networks with Indigenous communities across Washington state.
“Cluster hires are particularly important for AIS because so much of our research draws on the strength of our relationships to our communities and to other Indigenous scholars,” Radocay said. “A growing community allows us to build and strengthen the kinds of relationships that are vital to our work.”
Learn more about the UW’s efforts to foster a more diverse faculty.