In 2023, I founded NASI, the Native American Studies Initiative at Duke University. The strong success of NASI has allowed us to move from an initiative to a research program on July 2025.
The Research for Indigenous Studies & Engagement in the United States (RISE-US) is a research program focusing on Indigenous Peoples of the United States by uplifting visibility and education, research, and collaborations in Indigenous Studies.
RISE-US focuses on three main areas:
– Increasing visibility and education about Indigenous Nations and Peoples in the US on Duke University’s campus
– Supporting Duke faculty, staff, and students with their ethical, community-engaged research with Indigenous Peoples in the United States
– Forming collaborations on national and international levels across educational institutes and with Indigenous Nations in the United States.
RISE-US was thrilled to launch its inaugural year with The Year of American Indian Pop Culture!
This included:
American Indians Go Graphic
Comic Book Exhibition
The Jerry and Bruce Chappell Family Gallery
Perkins Library, Duke University
Free and open to the public
Curated by Dr. Courtney Lewis and Dr. Lee Francis, IV, this exhibition celebrates stories about and created by American Indians and explores historic and contemporary Native Nation-centric topics through the medium of comic books and graphic novels.
August 2025–January 2026
Power, Presence, and Future: American Indian Pop Art in Action
Art Exhibition
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Free and open to the public
The artists in this exhibition shatter these distortions by drawing on Pop Art’s saturated color, humor, irony, and interest in mass culture. Their work creates and claims spaces for Indigenous agency, authorship, and aesthetic power, challenging what Pop Art can do and what viewers are conditioned to see.
Friday, November 14, Saturday, November 5 & Sunday, November 16, 2025
IndigiPopX
Indigenous Comic Con
Penn Pavilion, Duke University
This Indigenous pop culture expo showcases Native American and Indigenous creatives and communities in a way that dispels the mythologies that Natives are a people of the past.
Friday, February 6, 2026
Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band
Duke Arts Presents
Reynolds Industries Theater, Duke University
Led by the celebrated vocalist and luminary Julia Keefe (Nez Perce), this all-star ensemble of Native and Indigenous jazz musicians celebrates the genre’s deep Indigenous roots.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
“Indigenomicon: American Indians, Video Games, and the Structures of Dispossession”
Jodi Byrd
Professor, Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity
University of Chicago
Free and open to the public
Thursday, April 2 & Friday, April 3, 2026
Bear Grease: The Musical
Duke Arts Presents
Reynolds Industries Theater, Duke University
Bear Grease is an unapologetically Indigenous musical and a loving clap back to the classic hit Grease—reimagined through the lens of Indigenous culture, language, song, and humor.
April 2026
Artist-in-Residence: Arigon Starr
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