Miye Tom

Biography

Miye Nadya Tom is a scholar of Native American descent (an enrolled member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe) and third generation Russian-American. She was raised as an active member of the urban Native American community of Los Angeles, California. In 2007, She received her B.A. in International Studies with a regional emphasis on Europe from the University of San Francisco. She then entered directly into the doctoral program, “Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship”, Center of Social Sciences at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. In 2014, she concluded her degree with distinction and honors. She is currently conducting independent research in association with the University of Córdoba, Spain. As a member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), she will be a co-chair of the Special Interest Group (SIG), Indigenous Knowledge and the Academy, with the objective of promoting more Native American scholarship in both CIES and the SIG.

Current Research

Written from a Native American perspective, Dr. Tom’s PhD dissertation, Hip-Hop Culture, Community, and Education: Post-Colonial Learning? reaches across different historical legacies to exhibit how, even within ‘post-colonial’ Europe, the colonial question continuously produces silences that preserve inequalities by affirming the cultural legitimacy of one particular knowledge over an ‘Other’s.’ Her study includes the production of hip-hop culture/rap music by Black Portuguese youth of Cape Verdean descent in Lisbon, Portugal and a multimedia project developed by an Indigenous hip-hop artist for urban Native American youth in San Francisco, California. Her work seeks to include the perspectives of youth and young adults in analyzing race, place, belonging, and citizenship. Following the conclusion of her degree, Dr. Tom has continued her research while a visiting scholar at the University of Córdoba, Spain. She is currently expanding her doctoral research to include education and ethnicity among/with members of Romani communities (gitanos) Andalucía, Spain.