Noah Romero

Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies

Noah Romero earned his Ph.D. from Waipapa Taumata Rau (The University of Auckland) in the fields of critical studies in dducation and Māori, and Indigenous education. Drawing from a transnational constellation of critical, Indigenous, queer, and decolonial ways of knowing and doing, Romero's teaching and research deepens understanding of racialized subjectivity by emphasizing the generative possibilities that occur when Indigenous, immigrant, and dispossessed peoples commune with land, our ancestors, and one another.

Romero's first book, Decolonial Underground Pedagogy: Unschooling and Subcultural Learning for Peace and Human Rights will be published by Bloomsbury in 2023. The book compiles several insider ethnographies that theorize the anti-oppressive pedagogies found in minority-led punk, skateboarding, and unschooling subcultures. Instead of reifying colonial logics like individualism, competition, and consumerism, minority-led subcultures often cultivate community engagement, an understanding of one’s responsibilities, and a shared sense of identity. These findings correlate with experiences of healing and liberation among subcultural insiders with racialized, queer, and nondominant identities, which has significant implications for the development of anti-racist, community-responsive, and decolonial forms of education.

 

Recent and Upcoming Courses

  • How has compulsory education been used to perpetuate colonialism and its associated discourses, like racism, cisheteronormativity, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, and Indigenous dispossession? Conversely, how can radical and ancestral approaches to teaching and learning insurrect subjugated knowledge and unite people in a shared struggle for liberation? This Native American and Indigenous Studies foundation course introduces students to the critical study of education through the historical examination of colonial schooling, as well as Indigenous efforts to reclaim Land+, languages, and lifeways through community-sustaining pedagogy.

  • What do punk rock, heavy metal, skateboarding, hip-hop, and comedy teach us about Indigenous liberation? This course frames subcultural communities led by historically colonized but inherently sovereign people as vital movements for justice, equity, and anti-racism. Bringing Native American and Indigenous Studies in conversation with theories of subcultural sociality, this course aims to foster a deep understanding of how Indigenous and minoritized people agitate for collective rights while dynamically preserving ancestral knowledge.