The IPinCH Steering Committee is pleased to announce that Dr. Alexis Bunten is joining the IPinCH collective as our new Postdoctoral Fellow. Alexis will be starting her research as IPinCH project ethnographer this summer once she has completed other commitments. In this role, she will be contacting many members of the collective as she traces actions, communication and knowledge flows throughout the project, and will also be analyzing relationship dynamics among various segments of the collective and with our range of stakeholders. Her findings will enable IPinCH to better achieve its goals by identifying what is working well, and what can be improved and how.
Alexis’ own words best describe her background and passion for benefitting communities:
"Part of my agenda as a Native Alaskan scholar is to put the world of academia at the service of local communities through open, engaged scholarship. As such, I have collaborated with tribal governments, national and international organizations working to promote Indigenous cultural perpetuation, heritage and economic development throughout my professional life. After receiving a B.A. in art history from Dartmouth College, I returned to Alaska where I worked at the Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Alaska Native Heritage Center as Program Supervisor. Subsequently, I earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA followed by appointments as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, and as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Humboldt State University. Broadly speaking, my research explores Indigenous entrepreneurship as a lens to explore the shifting politics of Indigeneity in relation to policy and development. I currently hold a Ford postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Cruz, where I am working on a project theorizing Indigenous capitalism(s)."
Alexis has extensive experience in the realm of cultural and intellectual property; has conducted field studies in both the Northwest Coast and New Zealand, has published widely on such topics as commodification and consumption, Native American arts, cultural tourism, identity politics, and much more; and been very active on the conference circuit.
The Steering Committee is excited to have such a talented, committed scholar bring her understandings, knowledge and skills to bear on our project.
