Isabella Abrudeanu, a race, indigeneity and migration sophomore, noticed her major’s classes started to disappear this summer. Now, she said she thinks only one or two are currently being offered.
UT discontinued the major this semester, just three years after its creation in 2023. Abrudeanu is on the major’s indigeneity track and studies topics related to Native American and Indigenous studies.
“It feels almost as if my major doesn’t exist on campus sometimes,” Abrudeanu said. “Like I can’t even find (race, indigeneity and migration) as a major, and if you look it up, it’s hard to find.”
Abrudeanu herself isn’t indigenous, and in her American and Texas history classes, Native Americans were barely mentioned at all, she said.
After reading about the Osage Nation’s legal fight against the U.S. government, she started looking into Oklahoma’s reservations and read books on Native American Indigenous history such as “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.”
“I started engaging more with literature that specifically talks about or considers Indigenous experiences,” Abrudeanu said. “Whether the author is Indigenous or whether the author is just investigating the history of Indigenous people.”
Abrudeanu took her interest and used it to create an impact. She spent a year and a half volunteering with Austin’s Indigenous community, working at cultural gatherings and helping out at what she described as Austin’s first Native American and Indigenous fashion show. In the future, she hopes to land a job working with the Indian Health Service on reservations.
Abrudeanu’s great-grandfather died in a Romanian political prison, and her father’s family left their country as refugees. She said her history shapes how she perceives the world.
“I think my dad’s history, especially, it showed me that your success here in the United States, it’s based on a lot of factors,” Abrudeanu said. “It’s not just based on how hard you work. It’s based on your education. It’s based on your family’s education.”
When Abrudeanu learned of the consolidation in February, she tried to figure out if her major would still exist and could not get much information.
Ambrudeanu said various UT Indigenous studies classes focus on Latin America rather than North America, and professors in the Native American and Indigenous studies faculty group have recently left.
“Someone has to say something,” Abrudeanu said. “Somebody has to fight the school’s consolidation … What’s going to happen to the immense methodology we have here at UT campus with professors and experts and what they bring to the table?”