Biography

Theresa Jean Ambo is an associate professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at UCLA. Her primary research examines historical relationships and contemporary partnerships between Native Nations and public universities. Theresa also collaborates with community members and colleagues to examine settler land acknowledgment statements and histories of universities. She holds a B.A., M.Ed., and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is currently a William T. Grant Scholar (class of 2027). Theresa’s research has been funded by the Spencer, Lumina, and William T. Grant Foundations and published in Social Text, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, American Educational Research Journal, and The Journal of Higher Education.

Selected Publications

Ambo, T. J. (2023). Tribal community-university partnerships for Indigenous Futures. In: Perna, L.W. (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, Vol 39, 473-519.

Ambo, T. J. (2023). Unsettling mission statements: An Indigenous critique of espoused institutional responsibilities. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 16(5).

Stewart-Ambo, T. J. & Stewart, K. L. (2023). From Tovaangar to the University of California, Los Angeles: The transfer of Gabrielino-Tongva homelands from time immemorial to present. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 46(2), 125-150.

Ambo, T. J. & Rocha Beardall, T. (2023). Performance or progress? The physical and rhetorical removal of Indigenous peoples in settler land acknowledgments at land-grab universities. American Educational Research Journal, 60(1), 103–140.

Vaughn, K. & Ambo, T. J. (2022). Trans-Indigenous education: Indigeneity, relationships, and higher education. Comparative International Education, 66(3), 508-533.

Stewart-Ambo, T. J. (2021). “We can do better:” University leaders speak to tribal-university relationships. American Educational Research Journal. 58(3), 459-491.

Stewart-Ambo, T. J. & Yang, K. W. (2021). Beyond land acknowledgments in settler institutions. Social Text. 39(1), 21-46.