Our current postdoctoral fellows conduct research with the Boarding School Education History Project.

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Rachael Nez is a documentary filmmaker, academic, and teacher. Born and raised on the Navajo Reservation, maintaining heritage languages and working with Native communities are her core passions. Her research, Performative Models for Heritage Language Learning: Theater, Song and Tribal Radio, examines how Indigenous language workers use media, storytelling, and theater to sustain heritage languages. A UC Davis Provost Dissertation Fellow, Rachael's work centers on utilizing media tools for Native languages, cultural sharing, and language preservation.
An Eloise Cobell scholar, Rachael has served as an associate professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, teaching courses in video production, cinema history, and storytelling. She strongly believes in revitalizing Indigenous language and supports those efforts through her knowledge of multi-media technology. Rachael holds a Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis, with a Designated Emphasis in Performance and Practice.

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Derek Baron received their PhD from the Department of Music at New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2023. Their dissertation, “The Geopolitics of Voice,” speaks across sound studies, American studies, settler-colonial studies and the history of science to examine the role of music and linguistics in United States colonial discourse in the nineteenth century. Derek’s research has a particular focus on the music and language programs at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and other federal boarding schools for Indigenous children. They have also published or have work forthcoming on music theory, aesthetics, and experimental theater.

Postdoctoral Fellows