Yá'át'ééh!
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Education
Ph.D. Native American Studies, University of California, Davis
M.A. Spanish Language and Literature, University of Maryland, College Park B.A. Spanish Language and Education, Rowan University |
Hi! My name is Christine Ami and welcome to my portfolio! Please feel free to explore my materials that help describe me as a Diné scholar and Native American studies (NAS) professor living within the Navajo Nation.
As an Associate Professor at Diné College and lead faculty of the NAS Minor, the first minor within the Tribal Colleges and Universities system, I teach and mentor students who wish to gain practical, hands-on skills to address contemporary issues facing Indigenous people and communities. I am also a Quality Matters Certified Online Instructor, which has maximized my online classes in synchronous, asynchronous, and flex-Zoom settings. Furthermore, I am dedicated to Indigenous online relationality teaching practices. Interested in knowing how I teach Indigenous Research Methods, Cultural Arts, Animal Studies, and other NAS classes online? Check out my Online Teaching Practices. After wrapping up a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, I found a home for my forthcoming book Today, We Butcher: Lessons from Sheep on Life, Death, and Re-Membering at Yale University Press. The book revisits the origins and roles of sheep within Diné culture through the stories of weavers, shepherds, and butchers. We explore the multiple manners sheep die, including topics such the Miss Navajo Nation Butchering Event, Diné owned slaughter facilities, and sheep sacrifices. In the end we highlight the looming question: How do we continue these lifeways not as nostalgia, but as co-constitutive practices. Cannot wait until 2026 for the release? Follow that progress on my blog: Dismembering. |
Outside my virtual classrooms, I do what I do best - I am mom and wife who tends to a field and a ranch and all the sheep poo that comes along with that territory! Not only do I teach about ethnophilosophies such as the Corn Pollen Path and Sheep Is Life, but I live them. It is a privileged to do so and a gift of responsibilities I am able to offer my two sons. My ultimate goal is to guide respectful, proud, and capable Táchínii boys who know where they come from and how to represent that rich future wherever they may go. Those ventures also happen to include helping their Dad, award winning silversmith, Carlon P. Ami II, with promotion of his work at the Santa Fe Indian and Heard Indian Guild Markets.
This brings me to my evenings - they are spent weaving. My textiles have garnered ribbons at the Gallup Inter Tribal Ceremonial as well as the Navajo Nation Fair. This experience became the motivating factor for creating the Navajo Cultural Arts Program. I spearheaded academic programs and developed online supplemental programs such as the Bee ádeil’íní Language Series, the T'áá awołí bee Conversation Series, and the Holini: Lecture Series. Although I am no longer the program manager, I continue to support cultural arts learners any way that I can, including through classes like, K'é through Capitalism: Indigenous Art Markets and Weaving Ethnographies (yup, I teach Navajo weaving online!)
I write and research of what I know best - always positionality based, always geographically influenced, always me. Please feel free to check out my Publishings, research, and Online Teaching Practices.
Dóone’é nishlínígíí éí Táchii’nii nishlí, Bilagáana báshíshchíín, T’ó’aheedl’ííníí dashicheii, Bilagáana dashinálí. Shí éí Christine Ami da shijiní. Ak’otéego Diné asdzaan nishlí.
This brings me to my evenings - they are spent weaving. My textiles have garnered ribbons at the Gallup Inter Tribal Ceremonial as well as the Navajo Nation Fair. This experience became the motivating factor for creating the Navajo Cultural Arts Program. I spearheaded academic programs and developed online supplemental programs such as the Bee ádeil’íní Language Series, the T'áá awołí bee Conversation Series, and the Holini: Lecture Series. Although I am no longer the program manager, I continue to support cultural arts learners any way that I can, including through classes like, K'é through Capitalism: Indigenous Art Markets and Weaving Ethnographies (yup, I teach Navajo weaving online!)
I write and research of what I know best - always positionality based, always geographically influenced, always me. Please feel free to check out my Publishings, research, and Online Teaching Practices.
Dóone’é nishlínígíí éí Táchii’nii nishlí, Bilagáana báshíshchíín, T’ó’aheedl’ííníí dashicheii, Bilagáana dashinálí. Shí éí Christine Ami da shijiní. Ak’otéego Diné asdzaan nishlí.
Ready to see me in action? Below are just a few of the most recent "live" findings of my thoughts and experiences. Enjoy :)
Latest Podcast
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I joined Dr. Farina King of Native Circles in this podcast to chat about my chapter, "Wołí Bee," in the book "COVID-19 in Indian Country"
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Latest Guest Lecture
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The thumbnail on this YouTube lecture speaks to my personality. lol
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Diné College Kinyaa’áanii Library Special Collections Series: Diné Bich’iyáán
Leading with Fire: Diné College Library Sources: This series, which is funded through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, highlights essential special collections resources at the library that define the educational and self-deterministic legacy of the college. Dr. Ami discussed the role of these collections in her forthcoming publications on Navajo sheep butchering and the Navajo cultural arts. |
Dismembering the Blog
My home at the base of the Chukka Mountains