This is the first episode (hyperlinked) of a new special series, NAIS: Gatherings from the Field, highlighting contributors to a forthcoming book, Native American and Indigenous Studies: Gatherings from the Field, co-edited by Kiara Vigil and Farina King to be published by the University of Oklahoma Press (2027). In this episode, Kiara and Farina introduce the book and what made it possible. Over two dozen authors and artists contributed to the book, featuring an array of themes that are central to Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS). This series provides a complementary resource to hear directly from authors and artists about their insights and approaches to NAIS.

Kiara M. Vigil, PhD, Santee Dakota, Sagadasin, and Wasicu ancestry, is professor of American studies, Chair of Education Studies, and Dean of New Students at Amherst College. Her interests include Native American and Indigenous studies, American studies, and American history, literature, and cultural studies. She is editor-in-chief of the Oxford Bibliographies in Indigenous Studies and editor of the journal Studies in American Indian Literatures. She is a series editor for the Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures for University Press of Kansas. She is author of Indigenous Intellectuals: Sovereignty, Citizenship, and the American Imagination, 1880–1930 and several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

Farina King, PhD, Diné (Navajo Nation citizen), is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and a full professor of Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include Native American and Indigenous studies, Native American history, ethnohistory of North America, comparative colonial history, oral history, history of Native American education, the American West and Southwest studies, Native American and Indigenous Women’s studies, and public history. She is the author of The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century, and coauthor of Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School, among other publications.