America has been, historically, a land of trees. This made its built environment thoroughgoingly wooden and, as a consequence, alarmingly combustible. In the same way that fossil fuels are today the source of our abundance but also the cause of a dreaded apocalypse, wood was the source of American abundance and the cause of constant, harrowing fires. In This Too Shall Burn, Daniel Immerwahr asks how those hair-raising fires have shaped—or scarred—the American past.

Please join MIT Anthropology Professor Sonya Atalay (CBIKS founder & director) for the first Indigenous Sciences Speaker Series speaker of 2025.

This talk shares insights from a collaborative field school bringing together students and Tribal members from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and their Land Trust. Informed by cultural perspectives and priorities, participants learned archaeological field methods developed by the Tribe and archaeologists over the last decade to study and preserve Indigenous cultural heritage.

Talk Title and Abstract TBA 

Come relax with us and enjoy some fun conversation! No need to RSVP: just show up and bring your friends! 

The U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (NSF CBIKS) invites you to the fourth speaker in the Indigenous Sciences Speaker Series: Dr. Kiana Frank. Kiana Frank - born and raised in Kailua Oʻahu – studies how microorganisms shape ʻāina (land) for productivity and health by weaving contemporary western techniques with Native Hawaiian Science. Her work evaluates overall ecosystem health and informs current monitoring, restoration, cultivation, and management of Hawaiian resources to sustainably support the people of Hawaii.

Come relax with us and enjoy some fun conversation! No need to RSVP: just show up with your friends!