Melissa Nelson

Melissa K Nelson

Melissa Nelson

()

Associate Professor
American Indian Studies, College of Ethnic Studies

Email:
mknelson@sfsu.edu
Phone Number:
4153386422
Location:
EP 106

At SF State Since:

2002

Office Hours:

Bio:

Melissa K. Nelson, Ph.D. is an ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and native scholar-activist. She is Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Her work is dedicated to indigenous rights and revitalization, Native science and biocultural diversity, ecological ethics and sustainability, and the renewal and celebration of community health and cultural arts.

Dr. Nelson is a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University and president of the Cultural Conservancy, an indigenous rights organization, which she has directed since 1993. Dr. Nelson received her B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, both in the field of Ecology with an emphasis in Ecophilosophy and Native American Environmental Studies respectively.

Her first edited anthology Original Instructions – Indigenous Teachings For A Sustainable Future (2008), features three of her essays and focuses on the persistence of Traditional Ecological Knowledge by contemporary native communities. She publishes regularly in academic and popular journals and books. In 2005 Dr. Nelson was the co-producer of the award-winning documentary film, The Salt Song Trail: Bringing Creation Back Together and has co-produced several other documentary short films. In 2006 – 2007 Melissa was a Visiting Scholar at the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2010 – 2011 she served as the Anne Ray Resident Scholar at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Nelson currently serves on the Steering Committee of the Facitiating Indigenous Research, Science, and Technology (FIRST) Network, the Guiding Committee of the Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Learning Fund and the board of directors of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center and the Sogorea Te Land Trust. 

Dr. Nelson is a Switzer Fellow (1996) and Environmental Leadership Award recipient and has received awards for teaching, experiential education, documentary filmmaking, and environmental stewardship. She has presented her work throughout North America and in Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the Philippines, Australia, Peru, and New Zealand. 

 

Websites:

Professor of American Indian Studies, President of the Cultural Conservancy, LinkedIn, Academia.edu, Earthdiver site

 

Courses Taught

Spring 2017

  • AIS 410: Perspectives of Native California Indians
  • AIS 535: American Indian Film 

2002 – 2016, AIS, SFSU

  • AIS 160: Survey of Native California Indians
  • AIS 162: American Indian Oral Literature
  • AIS 310: American Indian Religion and Philosophy
  • AIS 410: Perspectives of Native California Indians
  • AIS 420: American Indian Women
  • AIS 450: American Indian Science
  • AIS 520: American Indian Ecology & Environmental Studies
  • AIS 680: American Indian Senior Seminar
  • AIS 694: Community Service Learning
  • AIS 701: American Indian Graduate Seminar

 

Spring 2007, American Indian Studies, UCLA

  • Revitalizing Indigenous Voices: American Indian Oral Tradition and Multimedia

 

1999 – 2000, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco

  • Ecological Psychology Graduate Course
  • Ecopsychology and Environmental Justice Summer Course, co-taught with Allen Kanner, Ph.D. 

 

Publications

 

  • Chapters in Peer-Reviewed Edited Books

2017. Getting Dirty: the Ecoeroticism of Women n Native Oral Literatures. For Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. Edited by Joanne Barker. Duke University Press. 

2016. Linking Ancestral Seeds and Waters to the Indigenous Places we Inhabit. Co-authored with Nicola Wagenberg. For Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices, edited by Jeanine Canty. New York, NY: Routledge Press. 

2016. “Indigenous Ecological Traditions in North America.” For Handbook of Religion and Ecology. Edited by John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker. New York, NY: Routledge Press. ​

2015. Indigenous Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Persistence in Place. In The Indigenous World of North America. Edited by Robert Warrior. Routledge.

2013. Protecting the Sanctity of Native Foods. Is Sustainability Possible? State of the World 2013. Edited by Erik Assadourian and Thomas Prugh. Washington: Island Press.

2013. The Hydromythology of the Anishinaabeg: Will Mishipizhu Survive Climate Change or is he creating it? In Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories, edited by Jill Doerfler, Niigonwedom James Sinclair and Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark. East Landing: Michigan State University Press.

2011. [Reprint]. Becoming Metis. The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World. Edited by Alison Deming and Lauret Savoy. Milkweed Editions.

2009. Indigenous Religions – North America. In The Encyclopedia of Sustainability, VI: The Spirit of Sustainability. Edited by Willis Jenkins. Berkshire Publishing, Great Barrier, MA.

2008. Rivers of Memory, Lakes of Survival: Native American Water Traditions and the Anishinaabeg Nation. In Deep Blue: Critical Reflections on Nature Religion and Water. Edited by Sylvie Shaw & Andrew Francis. Equinox Publishing, London, England. 

2006. Oral Tradition, Identity, and Inter-generational Healing Through the Southern Paiute Salt Songs. In Cultural Representation and Contestation in Native America. Edited by Andrew Jolivette. Berkeley: AltaMira Press.

2001. Contemporary Native American Responses to Environmental Threats in Indian Country. Co-authored with Dr. Tirso Gonzales. In Indigenous Traditions and Ecology –  The Interbeing of Comology and Community. Edited by John Grim, Center for the Study    of World Religions, Harvard University Press.

2001. Constructing a Confluence: Water Stories and the Restoration of an Urban Watershed. In Writing on Water.  Edited by David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus, MIT Press.

1999. [Reprint] Becoming Métis. In At Home on the Earth - Becoming Native to our Place. Edited by David       Landis Barnhill, University of California Press.

 

  • Peer-reviewed Journals

2011. The Future of Native Studies: A Modest Manifesto. The American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 35:1 (2011).

2008. More Than One Mask: The Context of NAGPRA for Museums and Tribes. Co-authored with Edward M. Luby. The American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 32:4 (2008) 85 – 105.

2006. Ravens, Storms, and the Ecological Indian at the National Museum of the American Indian. Wicaso Sa Review, 21, no. 2. 

2002. Introduction: Indigenous Language Revitalization. Nelson, Melissa, executive editor, ReVision Journal, Washington, D.C., Fall, 2002, Volume 25, Number 2, 3 - 4.

2002. Moyla Tuupanga: The Moon Is in the Sky: An interview with L. Frank Manriquez. Nelson, Melissa. ReVision Journal, Washington, D.C., Fall, 2002, Volume 25, No. 2, 39 – 48.

2002. Storyscapes: Living Songs in Native Lands. Co-authored with Philip Klasky. ReVision Journal, Washington, D.C., Fall, 2002, Volume 25, Number 2, 11 – 18

1998. A Psychological Impact Report for the Environmental Movement. ReVision, Spring. Vol. 20(4): 37-43.

1995. San Francisco Bay Area Coalition Forms Bonds Between Native Americans and Non-Native Restorationists. Co-authored with Emily Schwalen. Restoration and Management Notes 12(2): 243-244.

1993. Our Modern Challenge: Exploring Alternatives Through Dialogue and Ecological Responsibility. The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy 10 (2): 57-59.

1991. An Exploration of Intuition: Its Relationship to the Deep Ecology Movement & Ecosophy. The Trumpeter - Journal  of Ecosophy 9 (2): 83-84.

 

  • Popular Magazines​

2015. “Return to the Native: Inside the Indigenous Movement of Resistance and Restoration,” Earth Island Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3. I served as guest editor for this special issue and co-authored one article, “Revitalizing Native Foodways,” with Kaylena Bray.  

2013. “Wild and Cultivated Foods and Communities: A Collaboration.” Co-authored Wendy Johnson. Whole Communities Journal, Fayston: Vermont. Center For Whole Communities. 

2011. Red and Green: The Merging of the Indigenous and Environmental Movements and the Renewal of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Green Fire Times, August 2011.

2010. Cutting-edge Brower Center Honors Ohlone Ancestors in Blessing Ceremony. News From Native California, Vol. 23 (3), Spring.

2005. The Salt Song Trail. Co-authored with Philip M. Klasky. News From Native California, Vol. 18(4), Summer.

2004.  Health and Ecology of Indigenous California Foods and the Bay Nut. The Snail. Slow Foods USA Newsletter, May 2004.

2001. Storyscape: the power of song in the protection of native lands. Co-authored with Philip Klasky. Orion Afield, Autumn, Vol. 5(4), 22-25.

1998. To Help Us Be Human: An Interview with Malidoma Somé. Orion Magazine, Vol. 17(3), Summer: 13-16.

1997. Becoming Métis. Orion Magazine, Vol. 16(2), Spring: 62-64.

1995. Guidelines for Biodiversity Collections: A look at the issues. Abya Yala News  8 (2): 19-20.

1993. Book Reviews for David Rothenberg’s Is it Painful to Think? and Wisdom in the   Open Air: The Norwegian Roots of Deep Ecology. Orion Magazine, 12(4), Autumn.

 

  • Community Newsletters

2004. NAGPRA In Context: Report on a Workshop for Native American Tribes & Museums. Co-authored with Edward M. Luby. Roots & Shoots. California Indian Basketweavers Association, Newsletter #43, Summer/Fall 2004.

1994. Reclaiming an Indigenous Mind. The Ecopsychology Newsletter, Issue 2, Fall.

1998. Original Stakeholders of the Presidio: The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Presidio of San Francisco Environmental Newsletter, U.S. Department of Army, July, Volume 13.

 

  • Online Journals 

2015. A Kaleidoscope of Hope: Indigenous Knowledge Helping Mend the Nature-Culture Divide. The Interfaith Observor. http://theinterfaithobserver.org/all-about-tio/

 

  • Edited Reports

1995. Ecopsychology in Theory and Practice. In Fideler, D. (ed.). Alexandria  - Journal of the Western Cosmological Traditions. Grand Rapids: MI: Phranes Press.