NASPA Power and Place Symposium
Division/Group Events Student Success Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice Indigenous Peoples
June 24 - June 25, 2023 Haskell Indian Nations University & Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center
The NASPA Power and Place Symposium advocates for the inclusion of Indigenous worldviews in the work of higher education by questioning, reflecting, and imagining how the concepts in the foundational text Power and Place: Indian Education in America engender conditions for student success. The 2023 Power & Place Symposium will be a is a day and a half, place-based workshop, occurring at the beginning of the 2023 NASPA Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education (SSHE). Your registration will include a full-day experience at Haskell Indian Nations University on Saturday, June 24 (transportation and lunch included) and a half-day of continued learning and dialogue on Sunday, June 25, at the Sheraton at Kansas City Crown Center. NASPA is grateful to Haskell Indian Nations University for graciously hosting the first day of the Symposium.
This event is organized by representatives of NASPA’s Power & Place Symposium Committee, Center for First-generation Student Success, and NASPA staff.
Presented By

About
The symposium centers the seminal text, Power and Place: Indian Education in America, co-authored by Vine Deloria, Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), and Haskell Indian Nations University faculty member Daniel Wildcat (Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma).
The 2023 NASPA Power and Place Symposium builds upon the influential scholarship of Deloria and Wildcat by exploring how Indigenous higher education communities have developed a worldview regarding their participation within campus settings.
Power and Place will serve as the theoretical orientation for keynote presentations, plenary panels, concurrent sessions, and each supporting element of the symposium.
Locations:
- Saturday, June 24, 2023, at Haskell Indian Nations University (Map: 1155 E Indian Ave., Lawrence, KS 66046)
- Sunday, June 25, 2023, at Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center (2345 McGee St, Kansas City, MO 64108)
Registration
Registration Rates
Haskell Indian Nations University & TCU Registration
Haskell Indian Nations University $0 | Tribal College and University $125 |
NASPA Members and Non-Members Registration
NASPA Members $175 | NASPA Non-Members $275 |
As part of NASPA's commitment to repair and re-center NASPA’s work with the Indigenous Peoples community, registrants from Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) will have the option to add a complimentary one-year Associate Affiliate membership (value of $250). If your Tribal College or University is already a NASPA Institutional Member, you will be granted a complimentary one-year Professional Affiliate membership.
The information on this form will allow us to register you for the 2023 Power & Place Symposium and 2023 NASPA Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education, and to gauge your interest in a complimentary one-year NASPA membership.
All interested registrants from Haskell Indian Nations University or a Tribal College or University are encouraged to use this form.

Would you like to also register for the 2023 NASPA Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education (SSHE)? P&PS registrants from Haskell Indian Nations University and other TCUs will receive a $100 discount off the member registration rate for SSHE. By completing this form you can select to register for P&PS, SSHE, and a complimentary one-year NASPA Associate Affiliate membership. Upon completing the form, a member from NASPA will follow up via email with the next steps. Visit naspa.org/SSHE, to learn more.
Theme
Encouraging Indigenous Academic Identity Development
In Power and Place, Deloria and Wildcat (2001) maintain that the identities of Indigenous Peoples are inextricably linked to our geographical, political, and social experiences related to connection and belonging. A contemporary challenge for many Indigenous Peoples is centering our ever-present histories of survival and engaging these experiences to navigate today's educational realities and professional environments. While historically white colleges and universities have a role in interfering with the generational transmission of traditional ecological knowledge, what critical perspectives have Indigenous higher education communities generated about this phenomenon, and how do they explore their development amid this tension?
Excitedly, there is a consistent, emerging presence of Indigenous students, student affairs professionals, higher education administrators, and faculty who engage forthrightly with their community histories and cultural knowledge to advance thought, practice, and inquiry into Indigenous academic identity development. These efforts form the ground upon which the 2023 Power and Place theme emerges.
Deloria, V., Jr., & Wildcat, D.R. (2001). Power and place: Indian education in America. Golden, CO: Fulcrum.
Theme authored by Dr. Charlotte E. Davidson (Diné/Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation), Indigenous Relations Advisor, NASPA, and Director, Native American House, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Symposium Goals
A significant Power and Place Symposium goal is to invite, center, and privilege Indigenous perspectives on student success, as well as professional and leadership development experiences in higher education. The Power and Place Symposium is designed for student affairs administrators, higher education scholars, knowledge-keepers, community members, allied educators, and anyone else interested in questioning, reflecting, and imagining how the ideas in the Power and Place text can be applied, as theory, and practice, to transform institutional practices and contexts.
Use these hashtags to see what others are sharing #PowerAndPlace23 and #SSHE23.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending the Power and Place Symposium, participants will:
- Explore challenges and possible solutions in creating empowering education and development experiences for Indigenous higher education communities;
- Develop an increased awareness of institutional conditions that oppress and liberate the presence of historical, political, and linguistic relationships between place and Indigenous peoples;
- Reflect on the structural relationship between settler colonialism and higher education and its impact upon the educational and cultural realities of Indigenous peoples;
- Consider the implications for designing student success initiatives, policies, and programs as critical interventions that support the self-determination and political autonomy of Indigenous peoples in higher education; and
- Develop an extended professional network of reciprocity by sharing, learning, and exchanging knowledge and resources.
Schedule
The bus will depart from the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center at 8:00 am with an anticipated arrival time of 9:00 am.
9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Welcome Session
10:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. Overview of Symposium
11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. The Gifts They Bring: Remaining Knowledgeable About Native College Students
11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Plenary: Dr. Chicora Martin, Vice President of Student Affairs & Dean of Students at Agnes Scott College; NASPA Board Chair
1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
I. Prioritizing Indigenous Ways of Kowning at a non-Native Seriving Insituttion
II. Indigenous Decolonization and Sense of Belonging: Insights for Practice
III. Student-let Tour of Haskell Indian Nations University
2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. BREAK
2:45 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
I. Designing, Implementing, & Assessing Institution-Wide Retention Plans at Small Colleges & Universities and Tribal Colleges
II. Indigenous Ways of Leading in Higher Education Administration
3:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. Community Reflection
The bus will depart for the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center at 4:45 pm, with an anticipated return time of 5:45 pm.
9:00 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. Day Two Kick-off
9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
I. Kunihi Ka Mauna: Kanaka ʻŌiwi Student Affairs Dual Identity Moʻolelo (stories) from atop Mauna a Wakea (Mauna Kea)
II. Institutionalizing First-Generation Students in the Enrollment & Orientation Experiences at Access-Serving Institutions & Tribal Colleges
10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. - 11 am The Okanagan Charter & Health Promoting Universities: Valuing Local & Indigenous Contexts & Priorities
11:10 a.m. - 11:40 a.m. Issues of Power and Place in the Profession with Dr. Daniel Wildcat
11:40 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Community Reflection
Speakers
P&PS Co-Directors
Planning Committee
Gretchenrae Campera, Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Regional Engagement Initiatives, NASPA
Nancy Camarillo, Assistant Director, Center for First-generation Student Success, NASPA
Charlotte E. Davidson, PhD (Diné/Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation), Indigenous Relations Advisor, NASPA; Director, Native American House, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Frida Gipp, EdD (Apache/Comanche), Senior Admin Assistant, University Services, Haskell Indian Nations University; Bureau of Indian Education, U.S. Department of Interior
Monica Nixon, EdD, Vice President for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, NASPA
Jennifer Māhealani Quirk (Konaka ʻŌiwi), Director, Graduate Professional Access Program, Student Equity, Excellence, and Diversity (SEED), University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
Deana Waintraub Stafford, Senior Director, Center for First-generation Student Success, NASPA
Amber Waters, Associate Director for Meeting and Event Logistics, NASPA