Tag Archives: Indigenous Science

Get over your Self

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

What if there is no self? How would we approach life, discourse and communication if we were able to put our Self in abeyance? On hold? I listened to a talk recently about how selves–our egos, I guess–get in the … Continue reading →

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New Book on American Indians & Popular Culture

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Our new book on American Indians and popular culture arrives in February, right on the heels of ruminations about how politics and science are fused. Because my work examines how Native American cultural values are treated in mediated discourse within … Continue reading →

Posted in authenticity, cinema, film, framing, journalism, Native Science, science, science communication, writing | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Can We Engage Indians in Science?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Recently I was asked to give a talk at a conference for serious science writers and bloggers who wondered what it would take to engage more American Indians in science communication. In traditional native circles, science isn’t separated from other … Continue reading →

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The Science Conversation Bubble

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Over the last few days I’ve been floating in a bubble of conversations about science with some 350 writers, bloggers, teachers and scientists from the US and abroad. We gathered under North Carolina storm clouds to talk about science. What … Continue reading →

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Emotion, Cognition and Indigenous Ways-of-Knowing

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

In daily discourse we distinguish between the heart and the mind, emotion and cognition. And as a former journalist and professor of journalism we learned to separate feelings from facts, and to view the world though an unjaundiced, distant and … Continue reading →

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Separating Facts from Values

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

One critic charges that Western Science separates facts from values. The provenance of science is to define the facts, while “politicians and moralists” are left to define values. Problem is, according to Bruno Latour, you cannot distinguish facts from values, … Continue reading →

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Censoring Science

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

When is it appropriate for scientists to withhold information to scientific communities? To lay communities? Such thorny questions brought folks into the arenas of scientific circles recently when the New York Times reported that two prominent publications, Science and Nature, … Continue reading →

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What Does Your Theory Look Like?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

When I think about what I’m grappling with concerning science, Indian ways-of-knowing, and western ways-of-knowing, I imagine a picture. The current metaphor allows me to picture ways-of-knowing as a constellation, like an image of the Milky Way. I imagine a … Continue reading →

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Look under the Light

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

I learned a lot from an illustrated storybook I received when living in Iran, called Once the Mullah. The mullah lived in a village with this wife and children, and offered advice to the local denizens. He was sometimes wise … Continue reading →

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Wrangling over Sustainability

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

We were wrangling recently over the word sustainability: what does it mean for American Indians? I can readily point to such issues as language preservation, where tribes work diligently to teach language classes. The Osages run regular classes and the … Continue reading →

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