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Scholar to share insights with campus community
Cajete to discuss native science, indigenous health topics in visit to Luna on April 13
Dr. Gregory Cajete, a Native American educator, scholar and author, will share his insights with the Luna Community College campus community in a pair of special events on Wednesday, April 13.
Cajete will present “Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence,” specifically to Luna students at 9:30 a.m. at the Allied Health Auditorium.
Then Cajete will discuss “Health, Community, Indigenous Foods and Herbs in Northern New Mexico,” in a public presentation at 5:30 p.m. at the Media Education Center Auditorium. The presentation is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Cajete is a native of Santa Clara Pueblo and is currently a professor of Native American Studies and Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico. He has served as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethno-botany of northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. He has lectured at colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, England, Italy, Japan and Russia.
Prior to his time at UNM, Cajete was a dean, department chairman and professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He organized and directed the first National Native American Very Special Arts Festival in the early 1990s. He earned his bachelor’s in biology and sociology with a minor in secondary education from New Mexico Highlands University, a master’s in adult and secondary education from UNM, and a PhD from International College-Los Angeles New Philosophy Program in social science education with an emphasis in Native American studies.
His visit to Luna is part of the 2022 Nina Tesla Ballen Visiting Professorship in cooperation with New Mexico Highlands University.