Elam Grekin

Elam Grekin is a scholar and environmental educator originally from Seattle, WA. Her research focuses on the intersection of indigeneity, environmental protection, and resource management in public lands. Focused on National Parks and Monuments on the Colorado Plateau, her work considers how narratives and imaginaries of Indigenous histories, presents, and futures produced through educational, artistic, and instructional sites influence how land is related to and managed.

Project Title: Settler Confession: The Empty Promise of University Land Acknowledgements

Project Description: This project considers the discourses produced through university land acknowledgements. Drawing on work in Indigenous Studies, American Studies, and contemporary Indigenous poetry, the research asks what futures and pasts these statements construct, arguing that many are invested principally in repairing the settler and their institutions in the face of rising awareness of the genocidal structure of settler colonialism. At its root, this work asks what interventions are called for by these land acknowledgements and how they construct “proper” relationships to land and property as wealthy private universities attempt to justify and reaffirm their vast land holdings.