Sonya Atalay Featured as November Spotlight Scholar

Sonya Atalay, provost professor of anthropology, has been named a Spotlight Scholar for November 2025.

Atalay is one of the country's foremost experts on Indigenous and community-based archaeology. She leads the U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science (NSF CBIKS), headquartered at UMass Amherst with hubs around the globe. Established in 2023, NSF CBIKS is the first NSF social science Science and Technology Center and the first to focus on Indigenous science, bringing together over 50 scholars, a majority of whom are Indigenous, from across the U.S., Canada, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. NSF CBIKS also offers the next generation of scholars exposure to methods of braiding Indigenous and Western knowledges in research.

"Our scholars meet regularly and work with community partners to develop research questions and designs that reflect communities' priorities. It's totally flipping the way research is done," Atalay says. "In addition, all our partner institutions have signed intellectual property (IP) agreements that say the rights to whatever knowledge comes from Indigenous communities remain with Indigenous communities."

Ultimately, says Atalay, "We're building capacity within universities to learn how to work productively and ethically, not only with tribes but with all communities. Community-based research offers a partnership approach to solve critical challenges in the real world."

Atalay is the author of "Community-Based Archaeology: Research with, by, and for Indigenous and Local Communities," one of the first books to describe a vision for operationalizing the ethics and practices of community-based archaeology research. She has served on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation (NAGPRA) Federal Advisory Review Committee under two administrations.

To read more about Atalay and previous Spotlight Scholars, or to learn more about the nomination process, visit the Spotlight Scholars website.