Adrienne J. Keene (born 20 October 1985) is a Native American academic, writer, and

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. A member of the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It ...

, she is the founder of

Native Appropriations Native Appropriations is a blog that critically discusses the ways that Indigenous people are depicted in mainstream, Euro-American dominated, culture. Active since 2010, the website is created and maintained by Cherokee Nation scholar Adrienne K ...

, a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

on contemporary Indigenous issues analyzing the way that indigenous peoples are represented in popular culture, covering issues of

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from ...

in fashion and music and stereotyping in film and other media. She is also an assistant professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, where her research focuses on educational outcomes for Native students.

Early life and education

Keene is a member of the

and grew up in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. She earned her B.A. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in Cultural and

Social Anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

and Native American Studies in 2007. Keene then received a master's degree in education in 2010 followed by a doctorate

Ed.D. The Doctor of Education (Ed.D. or D.Ed.; Latin ''Educationis Doctor'' or ''Doctor Educationis'') is (depending on region and university) a research or professional doctoral degree that focuses on the field of education. It prepares the holder for a ...

in culture, communities and education in May 2014 from the

Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...

. Her dissertation was titled "College Pride, Native Pride, and Education for Nation Building: Portraits of Native Students Navigating Freshman Year."

Activism

Keene's blog

is a webpage and forum for

Native peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, including discussions of

and media representations and updates on indigenous activism. The site and Keene's writing there, as well as across other social media sites and speaking engagements, have drawn notice for commentary on topics including Native American mascots,

Dakota Access Pipeline protests The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also called by the hashtag #NoDAPL, began in April 2016 as a grassroots opposition to the construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States and ended on Febru ...

, college access for native students, and cultural appropriation in children's literature, tourism, clothing and costumes. Supporting Native college students has also been part of Keene's activism, working with an organization called College Horizons, a series of workshops aimed at supporting Native students in the different stages of the college process, from admissions to college life. This work formed part of her dissertation. Starting in 2019, along with Matika Wilbur (

Swinomish The Swinomish are an historically Lushootseed-speaking Native American people in western Washington state in the United States. The Tribe lives in the southeastern part of Fidalgo Island in northern Puget Sound, near the San Juan Islands, i ...

/ Tulalip), Keene co-hosts a podcast called "All My Relations," which investigates and delves into contemporary Native identity.

Academic scholarship

In 2014, Keene became a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in

's Department of Anthropology and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. She is now Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown. Her research focuses on access to

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...

for Native students in America, as well as Native representation in media and culture. She continues this project with research on the use of media and emerging technology platforms by Native people to combat these images. She is affiliated with the American Studies Association, the Native American Indigenous Studies Association, the American Educational Research Association, the

Eastern Sociological Society Eastern Sociological Society is a non-profit organization with a mission of "promoting excellence in sociological scholarship and instruction". It publishes a peer-reviewed journal (Sociological Forum) and holds a yearly academic conference An ac ...

, and the

National Indian Education Association The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) is the only national nonprofit exclusive to education issues for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people of the United States. History In March 1969, Sparlin Norwood, Cherokee, ...

Publications

* ''Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present.'' Ten Speed Press, 2021. ISBN 978-1-9848-5794-1. * "College Pride, Native Pride: A Portrait of a Culturally Grounded Precollege Access Program for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Students." ''Harvard Educational Review'', 2016. * "Representations matter: Supporting Native students in college environments". ''Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity'', 2015.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keene, Adrienne Jacqueline 1985 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women American bloggers American women bloggers American podcasters Brown University faculty Cherokee writers Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Living people Native American academics Native American women academics American women academics Native American activists Native American women writers Stanford University alumni Writers from San Diego American women podcasters