Sandra Garner

Sandra Garner graduated with her Ph.D. in Comparative Studies in 2010 and joined the American Studies program at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) that year. She is a past Heanon Wilkins fellow at Miami University (2010-2012), a recipient of the National Endowment of the Humanities Summer Stipend Award (2013), and was an Altman Scholar in "Globalization and Belonging" (2013-2014) and “Migrations” (2020-2021). Sandra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies and currently serves as the inaugural Chief Floyd Leonard Faculty Fellow at the Myaamia Center in Miami (2021-Present). She teaches primarily in the American Studies program with a focus on introductory honors courses, an experiential learning course, and the capstone for the major. She is Miami University’s representative on OHDE’s DEI committee. Her book, To Come to a Better Understanding: Medicine Men and Clergy Meetings on the Rosebud Reservation, 1973-1978 (University of Nebraska Press, 2016), examines a five-year-long dialogue between Lakota medicine men and Catholic priests to consider the possibilities and limitations of inter-cultural understanding. What happens when two very different cultures, with a long history of inequitable power relationships, come to the table to try to come to a better understanding? Other publications include: “To Come to a Better Understanding: Complicating the Two Worlds Trope” in Beyond Two Worlds, eds. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa and James Buss (SUNY Press, 2014); “Community-Driven Research: From Indian Country to Classroom and Back,” in Replanting Cultures: Community-Engaged Scholarship in Indian Country, eds. Stephan Warren and Ben Barnes, (SUNY Press, 2022); and numerous journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews. Her current project is a collected co-edited book: Indigenizing the Curriculum: Best Practices for Inclusion of Native and Indigenous Content in the Classroom.