Published: Aug. 3, 2021
JD

Dr. Joseph Dupris, Jr. is joining the CU faculty this fall, 2021, where he will serve as Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Linguistics. Dr. Dupris received his PhD in Linguistics and Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 2020. Dr. Dupris's work addresses issues around tribal language research, with a focus on analyzing language, race, and nation and sustaining the integrity of tribal polities. In the words of his PhD advisor, Dr. Ofelia Zepeda, "[Dr. Dupris's] research calls for language researchers to respect existing obligations to tribal peoples; compare national and racial contexts to better understand the role of language research in establishing and reproducing overarching (Indian, Indigenous) categories; consider the implications of racial and political recognition in tribal contexts; and offer an approach for tribalizing language research in an era of revitalization, and reclamation". It is anticipated that Dr. Dupris's CU appointment willl lead to a permanent position within the initial appointment period. Dr. Dupris is enrolled in the Klamath Tribes (the Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin tribes of southern Oregon and northern California), and is of Modoc, Klamath, Paiute and Lakota descent. Dr. Dupris was introduced to maqlaqsyals as a child attending tribal culture camps. His interest in language was reignited in 2013 when he returned to Chiloquin and participated in adult maqlaqsyals language classes after graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in American Indian Studies. Since then, Dr. Dupris has developed teaching methods and workshop series to help youth learn — and adults re-embrace — a language that has long been suppressed. For over a century, beginning in the 1860s, Klamath tribal youth were separated from their families and sent to boarding schools from Pennsylvania to Nevada, where they were punished for speaking their language. These efforts helped to extinguish fluency in the language. Joe is using new methods to expand daily use of maqlaqsyals, from YouTube videos to remote teaching to an independennt study course at Chiloquin High School, which allows students from the approximately 50 percent Tribal student body to access their ancestral language. Dr. Dupris will teach ETHN 1023: Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies, in Fall 2021.