Byrd to deliver keynote at the 5th Annual Luci Tapahonso Distinguished Indigenous Speakers Series

The University of New Mexico's Institute of American Indian Research (IFAIR) welcomes Chickasaw scholar Jodi A. Byrd as keynote speaker for the 5th Annual Luci Tapahonso Distinguished Indigenous Speakers Series as part of Native American Heritage Month.

As IFAIR's premier annual event, this gathering always draws strong community attendance. This year's event will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 4, from 4-6 p.m. in Hodgin Hall's Bobo Room.

Byrd is a professor of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. They will present "Indigenomicon: American Indians, Video Games, and the Structures of Dispossession," examining how video games reproduce settler colonialism while revealing possibilities for Indigenous resistance. Drawing on games such as Assassin's Creed, Animal Crossing, and Red Dead Redemption, Byrd explores how virtual worlds portray histories of slavery, genocide, and Indigenous land dispossession while marginalizing Indigenous relationships with land, water, plants, and spirits.

Over the past five years, the Luci Tapahonso Distinguished Indigenous Speakers Series has welcomed the following speakers: Sarah Deer (Muscogee/Creek Nation) in 2022, Diane Wilson (Sicangu Lakota) in 2023, Nancy Mithlo (Fort Sill Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache Tribe) in 2024, and Jake Skeets (Diné) in 2025.

The series honors Diné author and poet Luci Tapahonso, who has published five books of poetry and three children's books. Tapahonso began her literary career at UNM as a student and later joined its faculty. Through this annual event, IFAIR celebrates Indigenous voices, scholarship, cultures, languages, and intellectual traditions.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit IFAIR.