This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Welcome to the sixteenth installment of You Should Know, where I give my own #ScholarSunday salute to Science Bloggers and the Blogs you may not yet know about.
Introducing...Dr. Cynthia Coleman and Musings on Native Science.
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Musings on Native Science is a blog about science but the main topic is how Western science and Native science intersects. Dr. Coleman's passion about Indian methodologies and culture started at the beginning of her academic career. When she is not writing about Indians, she focuses on how science, health, and environmental issues are framed. Much of her writing is about what she is discovering during her fellowship with the National Museum of the American Indian. Her goal is to share what she is learning and to receive outside views of this knowledge. She has many links on her blog that you can use to learn more about the American Indian, and how information about Indians from films, television, magazines, cartoons, books, and internet play into controversial issues on how the Indian identity is constructed. Current topics include Indian bones, skeletons and artifacts.
Dr. Cynthia Coleman is a Professor of Communications at Portland State University. She received her PhD in Mass communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her MS
in Communications from Cornell University, and her BA in Liberal Studies from California
State University, Sonoma.
In her own words:
A great many of the blogs discuss research that examines how science is communicated in social discourse--news, books, magazine, the internet--and especially how science is framed in popular discourse. I am especially interested in issues that engage American Indian communities.My favorite blogs are always what is current: right now, the cultural divide between the repatriation of bones to indigenous tribes.
Links to some of her engaging material:
Use Columbus Day to confront stereotypes
Kennewick Man (You name it you own it!)
And she is blogging daily throughout the month of November in commemoration of Native American Heritage Month. One of my favorite posts in this series, so far is Science and Trust: What’s Rational?. In this post Dr. Coleman lays the truth out and explains why Native (and other communities of color) have legitimate reasons to doubt the sincerity of good intentions of the scientific community.
You can engage with Dr. Cynthia Coleman at the following social media platforms:
Website: Musings on Native Science
Twitter: @Cythinalcoleman
With November being celebrated as Native American Heritage Month, I believe it is especially important for everyone to check out her blog and follow her. Her voice, and the voices of other Native colleagues are too often overlooked or dismissed. Let this month of commemoration be the beginning of that silence/erasure ending. Visit her blog. Follow her on Twitter and be sure to leave a comment at one of her blog posts. Tell her you found her via The Urban Scientist (me, @DNLee5) and #ScholarSunday.
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I hope you’re enjoying this series of blog posts. If so, then I’d love to shine the spotlight on additional science blogs and scientists and help spread the word of amazing science outreach. If you know of a great science blog and/or science blogger who you think is amazing and would like to help spread the word about how amazing they are, then submit them. Now accepting recommendations for upcoming Science Blogger Spotlight for upcoming weeks.