Division of Academic Affairs

To: OSU Faculty and Staff

From: Alix Gitelman, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Senior Vice Provost

June 15, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

With the retirement of Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi, I have been considering a plan for oversight of the Difference, Power, and Oppression (DPO) program both short- and long-term. Dr. Susan Bernardin—Director of the School of Language, Culture and Society—and I will launch a national search for a new DPO Director this fall. I anticipate the new director would start in summer 2024 at the earliest.

Given that the new Core Education implementation work is starting in earnest and since it includes a two course DPO requirement, the DPO program needs both support and oversight in the near term before a permanent director can be identified. With that in mind, I am working toward making the following temporary appointments:

1. Dr. Natchee Barnd as Interim DPO Director for the period of June 16, 2023, to June 15, 2024.
2. Dr. Kali Furman as Interim Assistant Director of DPO beginning July 1, 2023.

Dr. Barnd has served as an Associate Professor in Ethnic Studies and Native American Studies, in the College of Liberal Arts. Natchee started at OSU in fall of 2012 and currently serves as the Coordinator for Ethnic Studies. Dr. Barnd earned his BA in American Multicultural Studies/Philosophy from Sonoma State University, 1997, his MA in American Indian Studies, from University of California, Los Angeles, 1999, his MA in Ethnic Studies from University of California, San Diego in 2001, and his PhD in Ethnic Studies from University of California, San Diego in 2008. Natchee has published Native Space; Geographic Strategies to Unsettle Settler Colonialism, Oregon State University Press (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies series), 2017, along with having an extensive list of peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and book reviews.

Dr. Kali Furman is currently an instructor with the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at OSU. Dr. Furman received her BA in History from Boise State University in 2011, a MA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from OSU in 2015, a Graduate Certificate: College and University Teaching from OSU in June 2016, and her PhD in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from OSU in June 2021. Kali worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar in 2021-2022 with Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi and co-edited with Nana Osei-Kofi and Bradley Boovy the 2022 volume Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education: Equity and Access in the College Classroom (Routledge). Kali has extensive teaching experience in DPD.

The Assistant Director position is new, created to support faculty in revising and developing courses to satisfy the new DPO requirements in Core Education. The Director and Assistant Director will work together to develop and deliver training materials for faculty so they, in turn can effectively deliver the DPO curriculum. We will launch an internal search for a permanent Assistant Director in the upcoming academic year.

Please join me in thanking both Natchee and Kali for agreeing to serve in these important roles. Their work will help ensure we do not lose momentum on implementing Core Education at OSU and importantly, that we deliver the expanded DPO curriculum to OSU students.

Warmly,

Alix Gitelman, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Senior Vice Provost