University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

In beauty, I walk: toward a maternal praxis of Diné decolonization

Davidson, Charlotte

Content Files
2_Davidson_Charlotte.doc
Charlotte_Davidson.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/46903

Description

Title
In beauty, I walk: toward a maternal praxis of Diné decolonization
Author(s)
Davidson, Charlotte
Issue Date
2014-01-16T18:25:51Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Gilbert, Matthew S.
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Darder, Antonia
Committee Member(s)
  • Gilbert, Matthew S.
  • Anderson, James D.
  • Emerson, Larry
Department of Study
Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp
Discipline
Educational Policy Studies
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2014-01-16T18:25:51Z
Keyword(s)
  • Indigenous Decolonization
  • Higher Education
  • American Indian
  • Traditional Knowledge
Abstract
This dissertation proposes a potential pathway to rethink how Diné matrilineal knowledge can work to inform a Diné female academic identity. In keeping with the decolonizing traditions of Indigenous scholars, I will use a Beautyway lens—as mediated by Diné traditional learning modalities—to explore how the narrations of three generations of Navajo rug weavers, Shimásáni (my maternal grandmother, Sally Yazzie), Shimáyázhí (my mother’s sister, Lena Yazzie), Shimá (my mother, Nora Wilkinson), and Shideezhi (my younger sister, Sallie Wilkinson), point to the contemporary criticality of the primacy of feminine agency—a heuristic and familial intelligence. To this end, I will engage the transformative possibilities that can dialogically emerge from a rewoven matrifocal understanding of the world, and its implications for conducting doctoral research, as well as how it informs institutional persistence as a Diné research doctorate.
Graduation Semester
2013-12
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46903
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2013 Charlotte Elizabeth Davidson

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