Nanea Renteria

M.A., Ethnic Studies, California State University, San Francisco, 2016
B.A., Philosophy, California State University, Magna Cum Laude, Stanislaus, 2010

Nanea Renteria is a PhD student and graduate instructor at Columbia University whose work is focused on Indigenous religious traditions, gender, settler colonialism, intergenerational transmission, and two-spirit dormancy and revival. Her research examines transformations in protocols within the Native American Church, a pan-Indigenous religion and way of life that has been at the center of religious freedom debates in North America for over a century. Using archival research, oral histories, and Indigenous methodologies, Nanea’s work looks at the ways in which tradition adapts, changes, and is passed on across generations. Before coming to Columbia, Nanea earned an MA in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University and a BA in Philosophy from California State University, Stanislaus. She has presented on academic solidarity delegations in Palestine and Cuba, and is a professional hula dancer with the Academy of Hawaiian Arts.