A discussion between Joseph Kunkel (Director, Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab at MASS Design Group) and Teresa Montoya (Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago)
Joseph Kunkel, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, is a Principal at MASS Design Group, where he directs the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a community designer and educator, focused on sustainable development practices throughout Indian Country. His work includes exemplary American Indian housing projects and processes nationwide. This research work has developed into emerging best practices, leading to an online Healthy Homes Road Map for Tribal housing development, funded by HUD’s PD&R Office. In 2019 Joseph was awarded an Obama Foundation Fellowship for his work with Indigenous communities. Joseph is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Civil Society Fellowship, a partnership of ADL and The Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Most recently Joseph was named a 2022 Rubinger Community Fellow by the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC).
Teresa Montoya is a social scientist, media maker, and educator. Montoya’s research and media production focuses on legacies of environmental contamination in relation to contemporary issues of tribal jurisdiction, regulatory politics, water security, and public health on the Navajo Nation. Her research has been published in Cultural Anthropology, Water International, the American Journal of Public Health, and the Journal for the Anthropology of North America. Her photographic and film work has been shown internationally, most recently in an exhibition entitled Spill in Vancouver, B.C. In addition to her art practice, she has curatorial and education experience in various institutions, including the Peabody Essex Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, and currently the Field Museum. She is a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow and incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. She is Diné and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.
