University Staff: Indigenous Sovereignty and Justice Online

Abstract

United States (U.S.) public research universities generally deliver problematic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts that erase Indigenous, Transgender, and Disabled staff through online formats and representations. This qualitative explanatory study describes the DEI common language as one of compliance, erasure, and management through a review of 17 high and very high research universities as defined by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education(R). Of these universities, seven are also land grant universities. The frameworks applied include Indigenous Feminist Theory (Waterman, 2018) and Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991). The results from this review demonstrate universities' differing institutional commitments to Indigenous, Transgender, and Disabled communities while offering little about staff contributions to DEI education. Despite universities' general lack of recognizing DEI staff contributions, staff appeared in significant transformative online messages that build stronger DEI practices that are useful to staff themselves. Recommendations to staff include self-recognition of peer belonging and cultural expertise that may leverage their social and cultural approaches to informal online and in-person projects. This study may signal strategic practices beyond the colonial lens of individuality indicated by universities to that of robust staff-led community grassroots efforts in practice and research. Unpublished dissertation: Please cite and contact me for permission to copy, distribute, or use.