Kia ora e te whānau,

 
I am delighted to invite you to this year's Five College NAIS/APA symposium, which is being hosted jointly by the Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies and Asian/Pacific/American Studies Programs. This year's theme is Ola i ka wai: Oceanic relationalities in defense of the sacred. 

The symposium will be held from 9 AM - 6:30 PM (with a post-symposium reception) on Friday, April 25, 2025 at the Cole Assembly Room, Converse Hall, Amherst College. 

The day's speakers, panels, and storywork are all oriented around celebrating the historical, genealogical, and convivial bonds that link Indigenous nations to one another, which are often undertheorized relative to their ongoing encounters with settler statecraft. The day will offer a diverse array of perspectives on trans-Indigenous education, sovereignty, kinship, and futurity by exploring the histories, epistemologies, lifeways, aspirations, and community-sustaining praxes that hold our worlds in balance and link Indigenous and deterritorialized peoples to one another.  

To access the symposium program, please click here
No RSVP is necessary and the event is open to the public. Please feel free to share this invitation with all your relations. 

Please note that Between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., parking on the Amherst College campus is restricted. During these hours, guests (including members of the general public who are attending events), as well as Five College students, are asked to park in town.

 
The Five College Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program Distinguished Lecture presents T Kira Māhealani Madden

T Kira Māhealani Madden (she/her) is a diasporic Kanaka 'Ōiwi (Native Hawaiian) writer and author of the novel Whidbey, forthcoming with Mariner in winter 2026. Her memoir, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, was named a New York Times Editors' Choice, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award. She is the Founding Editor of No Tokens, a magazine of literature and art, and has received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Hedgebrook, Tin House, MacDowell, and Yaddo. Winner of the 2021 Judith A. Markowitz Award, she served as the Distinguished Writer in Residence at University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and will soon join Hamilton College as an assistant professor in Creative Writing and Indigenous studies.

This year's featured speakers also include Anthony Sneed (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) 

Anthony Sneed is a director, artist, and performer who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and Cherokee, North Carolina. In 2008, he landed the lead role in Frank Henenlotter's film BAD BIOLOGY, catalyzing their working relationship. Since, the two have collaborated on the film THE ART THIEVES and award-winning documentary BOILED ANGELS' THE TRIAL OF MIKE DIANA. Sneed recently made his directorial debut in the short SUCK, which he wrote, starred in, produced, and edited. His newest short, “STRIPPER,” was shot entirely on the Cherokee Indian Reservation with an all indigenous cast. He’s currently in production on his feature documentary “Bastards of the Boundary: Indian Stickball,” which chronicles a year in the lives of stickball team The Hummingbirds in the little-seen, violently beautiful game of Indian Stickball aka “The Little Brother of War”.

We are also honored to host:

Justin Beatty (Saponi, Ojibwe, & African American descent), Artist and Community Educator

Carlos Flores Quispe (Quechua), University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Makhai Dickerson-Pells, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Tyler Smart (Cherokee Nation),  University of Massachusetts, Amherst  

Virginia McLaurin, Assistant Director, Human Research Protection Office, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Abigail Chabitnoy (Koniag descent, Tangirnaq Native Village), Assistant Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Nozomi Nakaganeku Saito (Uchinanchu, Myaaku), Assistant Professor of English, Amherst College

Jessica Dolan, Mitacs Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph and Plenty, Canada

Carley Malloy, (Citizen Potawatomi Nation)  Program Coordinator for Community and Leadership Development for the Native American Program Program, Dartmouth College

José Lugo, Community Educator

Itza Martinez, The Collaborative for Educational Services

Christopher Newell (Passamaquoddy), Co-founder and Director for Education, Akomawt Educational Initiative

Angela D’Souza, Manager of Engagement, Smith College; Doctoral Student in Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technologies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

With great thanks to our partners and co-sponsors:

Five Colleges, Incorporated
Professor Kiara Vigil, Department of American Studies, Amherst College
Professor Lisa Brooks, Department of English, Amherst College
Martha Umphrey, Provost and Dean of Faculty, Amherst College
Amherst College Department of English
Amherst College Department of American Studies
Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies Program
Five College Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program
Hampshire College Decolonization and Reciprocity Working Group
Hampshire College Learning Collaboratives
Smith College Botanic Garden
Elizabeth James-Perry
Eileen C. Smith, Academic Department Coordinator / Supervisor, Department of English, Amherst College
Raymond Rennard, Director of Academic Programs, Five Colleges, Incorporated
April Shandor, Academic Programs Coordinator, Five Colleges, Incorporated
The Wild Gifting Project

To access the symposium program, please click here
No RSVP is necessary and the event is open to the public.

Arohanui (much love),

Noah Romero, on behalf of

Nozomi Nakaganeku Saito, Angela D'Souza, and Abigail Chabitnoy, Chairs of the Five College NAIS and A/P/A Programs