MLK Jr. event features expert on indigenizing climate justice

Dr. Michelle Montgomery, a professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences in American Indian studies and ethnic, gender and labor studies at the University of Washington Tacoma, will be the keynote speaker at a virtual event 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18 as James Madison University observes its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Week.

The event, sponsored by The Center for Multicultural Student Services at JMU, is free and open to the public. Registration for the event, which will be held via Zoom, is available at https://www.jmu.edu/multicultural/mlk-week.shtml.

Montgomery (enrolled Haliwa Saponi/descendant Eastern Band Cherokee) is also the assistant director for the office of undergraduate education, and the Indigenous curriculum and community advisor for the School of Education. Her research focuses on Indigenizing and decolonizing the climate justice narrative, environmental ethics connected to Indigenous Peoples’ place-based identities and eco-critical race theory to eliminate racial and environmental oppression.

She is the interim Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Washington Seattle Department of Bioethics and Humanities.

Montgomery is a proud graduate of an HBCU, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, and is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Two additional virtual events will culminate the observance, the “MLK Continuing the Legacy Panel” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19 and the “MLK Student Dialogue” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20.

Registration for those events is also available at https://www.jmu.edu/multicultural/mlk-week.shtml.

Media contact: Eric Gorton, gortonej@jmu.edu, 540-908-1760.

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