PhD Candidate Ryan Goeckner will be defending his dissertation entitled Being Good Ancestors: Fulfilling Post-Pandemic Futures in Native America on 4/11 at 10am in Smith Lab 4012. American Indian communities were among the most heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to navigate its far-reaching impacts. Drawing from conversations in 10 communities across Native America, this talk will detail how their responses to the pandemic challenge current approaches to resilience in anthropology and related social sciences. Findings detail how resilience in these communities manifests as an iterative process that involves considering responses historically, contemporaneously, and how these responses, ultimately, shape the futures of their communities. While establishing a clearer picture of this dynamic for Native communities, findings from this project illustrate the role of sustained and systemic traumas impacting resilience in many marginalized communities.
