Alma Rosa Alvarez
Professor – English, English Program Chair
PhD in English, University of California (Santa Barbara); MA in English, University of California (Santa Barbara); BA in English and Mexican American Studies, California State University (Dominguez Hills)
Dr. Alvarez teaches U.S. Literature with a specialty in U.S. Ethnic Literature. She has enjoyed teaching Native American fiction and poetry. In her spare time, she likes writing poetry.
Office: CE 254
Phone: 541.552.6629
E-Mail: alvarez@sou.edu
Brook Colley
(Wasco, Warm Springs, Eastern Cherokee) (Enrolled: Eastern Band of Cherokee)
Chair & Associate Professor of Native American Studies
PhD in Native American Studies, University of California (Davis)
Dr. Brook Colley is an Associate Professor and Chair of the SOU Native American Studies program. Colley’s research is focused on federal Indian law & policy, Oregon Tribes, intertribal relations & conflict, and community health & healing. Her book Power in the Telling: Grand Ronde, Warm Springs, and Intertribal Relations in the Casino Era was published in 2019 by the University of Washington Press and it was a finalist for the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction. In 2014, she received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis, and is currently working on an intertribal Indigenous-led collaboration to enhance first food access and first food production in Southern Oregon. She lives in Jackson County with her daughter, and two pups named Honey and Leonard Cohen.
Office: Taylor Hall 18B
Phone: 541.552.6751
E-Mail: colleyb@sou.edu
Sean F. McEnroe
Professor of History
PhD, University of California (Berkeley); MA, Portland State University; MAT, Lewis and Clark College; BA, Vassar College
Sean McEnroe spends much of his time studying and teaching about the Indigenous Americas. His first book, From Colony to Nationhood in Mexico, argues that essential elements of Mexican citizenship evolved from an early compact between Spaniards and native nations. His newest book, A Troubled Marriage, is a study of the literal and figurative marriages among European and indigenous communities throughout North and South America.
Office: Taylor Hall 216
Phone: 541.552.6647
E-Mail: mcenroes@sou.edu
Mark Tveskov
Professor – Anthropology
PhD, University of Oregon, 2000; MA and BA, University of Connecticut
Mark Tveskov is an archaeologist and ethnohistorian interested in historical memory, colonialism, ecology, and conflict archaeology. He has conducted research in Iceland, New England, southern California, and Alaska; most of his work takes place in Oregon in collaboration with federal, state, and local agencies and Indigenous nations. His current research focuses on the Rogue River War of the early 1850s in southern Oregon, the ontology and ecology of shell middens on the Oregon Coast, and on the African American logging community of Maxville in eastern Oregon. Tveskov is a member of the Governor of Oregon’s State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation.
Office: Taylor Hall 230
Phone: 541.552.6345
E-Mail: tveskovm@sou.edu
Emeritus Faculty
Mary Jane Cedar Face
Professor – Library Science, Native American Studies Librarian
MLIS, Rutgers University; BA, Douglass College; MA and ABD, Rutgers University
Mary Jane has been at the SOU since 1993. Her efforts to acquire Native studies materials for Hannon Library have resulted in one of the strongest collections in the region, with more than 15,000 books, films, journals, and other resources. Mary Jane is available to assist students with their research.
Jean Maxwell
Professor – Sociology-Anthropology
PhD Anthropology, University of Michigan; BA Anthropology, University of Washington
Jean helped facilitate the beginnings of Native American Studies at SOU in 1992, the first academic minor and then certificate program in the Oregon system of higher education. She was a faculty member in NAS until her retirement in 2016 and taught courses on Native North America and contemporary Native American issues. Jean also helped to bring into being Konaway Nika Tillicum, the Native American youth academy held annually at SOU since 1995. Jean currently serves on the Native American Advisory Council for NAS and is a member of the Oregon Indian Education Association.
James Phillips
Assistant Professor – Anthropology and International Studies
PhD and MA, Brown University; BA, Boston College
Dr. Phillips has been education writer and policy analyst for international development agencies, and has taught at several universities. He specializes in Latin American studies, including Native peoples, human and cultural rights, social change, studies of refugee populations. He he is a third generation descendant of Innu ancestors.
David West
(Enrolled: Citizen Potawatomi Nation)
Director Emeritus
MA, Community Psychology, University of Alaska (Fairbanks), 1990; BA, Sociology, University of Oregon, 1981
David was the Native American Studies director at Southern Oregon University until his retirement in 2015.
David taught core courses in NAS, offering insight into both the historical perspectives as well contemporary Native American issues. His advocacy efforts for Native American Indian education in Oregon is evidenced by the success of Konaway Nika Tillicum, a residential Native American youth summer academy held on the University campus. This academy is a model program in Oregon and the West Coast. David is a member of the Oregon Indian Education Association, the National Indian Education Association, The National Congress of American Indians and serves as the institutional representative for the Southern Region with the Oregon Indian Coalition on Post Secondary Education.
Brent Florendo
(Wasco, Warm Springs, Yakima) (Enrolled: Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs)
Native Nations Liaison / Instructor – Retired
BA, Southern Oregon University
Brent is of Wasco/Yakama/Warm Springs descent. He is a traditional storyteller, fancy dancer, and drummer as well as an actor, playwright, musician. Brent enjoys recruiting, teaching and working with Native youth and the community at large.
Contact the Native American Studies Program
SOU Native American Studies Program
Division of Humanities and Culture
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6751
– Questions about Native American Studies? –