Member of the Graduate Faculty | Associate Professor of Practice, American Indian Studies | Assistant Professor, American Indian Studies-GIDP
Tristan Reader is Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of American Indian Studies and the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurshiat the University of Arizona. His work focuses on: • Indigenous food sovereignty; • Native American wellness and public health; • Native American economic hybridity social entrepreneurship; • Cultural revitalization theory and practice; • Indigenous and Participatory Action Research PAR) methodologies; • Global food movements and food sovereignty; • Sustainable and culturally-based community development; • Community empowerment and quantum leadership; and • Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies. Prior to joining the UA faculty, Tristan was Co-Founder and Co-Director with Terrol Dew Johnson) of Tohono O’odham Community Action TOCA) for two decades. There, he partnered with hundreds of community members to develoa broad set of food sovereignty programs aimed at promoting public health, cultural revitalization, community empowerment, and sustainable economic development. This work was the foundation of his PhD dissertation, ‘Thereby We Shall Live’: Tohono O’odham Food Sovereignty and the Confluence of Quantum Leadership, Cultural Vitality, Public Health, and Economic Hybridity Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University – UK) Tristan is a joint-recipient of the Ford Foundation’s Leadershifor a Changing World Award. He helped found Native Foodways magazine, and serves on the LeadershiCouncil of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance NAFSA) Tristan has written more than 20 articles and book chapters on Native American food sovereignty.