Darren Ranco, Ph.D.

Description:

I have a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology, the Senator George J Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, and in Native American Programs, where I serve as Chair of Native American Programs and Coordinator of Native American Research. My research focuses on the ways in which indigenous communities in the United States resist environmental destruction by using indigenous diplomacies and critiques of liberalism to protect cultural resources, and how state knowledge systems, rooted in colonial contexts, continue to expose indigenous peoples to an inordinate amount of environmental risk. I teach classes on indigenous intellectual property rights, research ethics, environmental justice, and tribal governance. A member of the Penobscot Nation, I am particularly interested in how better research relationships can be made between universities, Native and non-Native researchers, and indigenous communities.