UC Davis Native American Language Center

We are delighted to share with you details about our faculty search underway this year! More details and application requirements can be found here: https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07317 We would be grateful if you could share with your networks!

In collaboration with UC Online and colleagues throughout the system, the Department of Native American Studies (NAS) at UC Davis is developing a systemwide online minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies. To help further that effort, we invite applications for an Associate or Full Professor to begin on July 1, 2026, after completing the UC procedures for appointment with tenure.
The successful applicant will assume co-leadership of the UC systemwide online NAS minor and be expected to share in the teaching of core courses in the program, as well as contribute to in-person graduate instruction and mentoring. The successful applicant must demonstrate excellence in teaching and research, a commitment to mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, and dedicated innovation in online instruction. We particularly welcome applications from senior scholars with demonstrated campus, community, national, and even international leadership, and publicly engaged research programs that demonstrate deep accountability to Indigenous communities.
Applicants should have PhD in Native American (or American Indian, Indigenous, First Nations) Studies and/or have sustained a clear focus on Native and Indigenous Studies through a related field; and maintain an active research program within Native North America (the continental United States, Canada, Alaska, and/or the northern Pacific). Topical expertise should complement and extend beyond the current strengths and interests of our interdisciplinary faculty.
Applicants must have expertise and experience with developing and offering online instructional programming; that is, intentional and comprehensive online pedagogy that is beyond just pivoting an in-person class onto Zoom due to the pandemic

We were honored to host the first UC Davis Patwin/Puhtwin/Wintun Language Gathering, Tʼewe Kʼawo 2025. We had so much to talk about! Let’s gather again soon.

Please share widely!

Please join us Thursday July 10th, 2025 9am PST for a panel on using digital technology platforms for our Indigenous languages

Register here;

https://ucdavislaw.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qT65uCTKQ5WpZMlUTxsAQA

“A Choctaw Chatbot for language learning and other technology lessons”
Lina Brixey

This talk will begin by exploring the motivations behind creating a Choctaw language chatbot designed to improve conversational fluency. The development process will be described and will highlight some implementation challenges such as orthographic variation and building an effective knowledge base. Additional examples of how technology can contribute to language revitalization and learning will also be demonstrated.

“Two Factors of Authentic Action”
Hali Dardar

When the Houma Language Project began in 2013, it began with a vision of being radically digital - relying on technology and digital infrastructure to create a digital community center focused on language reconstruction. Twelve years later this concept has turned out to be effective; however, it may not be the best place to start now. The online landscape has terraformed into a new geography over the past decade, and we have responded by realigning how we want our information to flow through it. This 20-minute talk will explicate the interaction design and social elements which made a digital community center an effective strategy 10 years ago to consider how we might apply these strategies into the present world of digital identity scavenger hunts.

https://nalc.ucdavis.edu/coil2025