Isabella Abrudeanu, a race, indigeneity and migration sophomore, noticed her major\u2019s classes started to disappear this summer. Now, she said she thinks only one or two are currently being offered.<\/p>\n
UT discontinued the major this semester, just three years after its creation in 2023. Abrudeanu is on the major\u2019s indigeneity track and studies topics related to Native American and Indigenous studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels almost as if my major doesn\u2019t exist on campus sometimes,\u201d Abrudeanu said. \u201cLike I can\u2019t even find (race, indigeneity and migration) as a major, and if you look it up, it\u2019s hard to find.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abrudeanu herself isn\u2019t indigenous, and in her American and Texas history classes, Native Americans were barely mentioned at all, she said.<\/p>\n
After reading about the Osage Nation\u2019s legal fight against the U.S. government, she started looking into Oklahoma\u2019s reservations and read books on Native American Indigenous history such as \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon\u201d and \u201cBraiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI started engaging more with literature that specifically talks about or considers Indigenous experiences,\u201d Abrudeanu said. \u201cWhether the author is Indigenous or whether the author is just investigating the history of Indigenous people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abrudeanu took her interest and used it to create an impact. She spent a year and a half volunteering with Austin\u2019s Indigenous community, working at cultural gatherings and helping out at what she described as Austin\u2019s first Native American and Indigenous fashion show. In the future, she hopes to land a job working with the Indian Health Service on reservations.<\/p>\n
Abrudeanu\u2019s great-grandfather died in a Romanian political prison, and her father\u2019s family left their country as refugees. She said her history shapes how she perceives the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my dad\u2019s history, especially, it showed me that your success here in the United States, it\u2019s based on a lot of factors,\u201d Abrudeanu said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just based on how hard you work. It\u2019s based on your education. It\u2019s based on your family\u2019s education.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone has to say something,\u201d Abrudeanu said. \u201cSomebody has to fight the school\u2019s consolidation \u2026 What\u2019s going to happen to the immense methodology we have here at UT campus with professors and experts and what they bring to the table?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isabella Abrudeanu, a race, indigeneity and migration sophomore, noticed her major\u2019s classes started to disappear this summer. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-464648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}