Skip to content
Apply
Stories

Choctaw Native creates space for understanding philosophy of  Indigenous Peoples

People in this story

When Getty Lustila decided he wanted to go into philosophy, he fully committed himself to going to graduate school, getting his doctorate degree and securing a job. Right around that time, he says, he started reconnecting with his Native American roots in a very private way. He rekindled relationships with those family members who felt a strong bond with their Indigenous heritage and looked for ways to connect with his tribe — Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “For a long time, I just thought about those two parts of myself as very separate from one another,” says Lustila, an assistant teaching professor of philosophy and religion at Northeastern.

Eventually, he had learned that there was a small handful of philosophers in the United States who specialized in Native American philosophy and Indigenous philosophy. This helped him see a way in which he too could devote more space in his professional identity to his Choctaw identity. Lustila started to include some topics related to Indigenous thought in his environmental ethics course. Last fall, he established the Indigenous Studies Circle—a student-led working group affiliated with the Ethics Institute at Northeastern. He says he saw two purposes for the group. 

Continue reading at Northeastern Global News.

More Stories

Ingredients for local Khmer dishes in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Dialogue of Civilizations Spotlight: Food and Culture in Vietnam and Cambodia

11.16.2023
Maria Ivanova, Northeastern's new director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022.

Maria Ivanova receives Global Green Mentor award at Climate Week NYC — but she’s just getting started

Denise Garcia’s, book, The AI Military Race, on Nov. 30, 2023.

Military AI: New book anticipates a world of “killer robots”—and the need to regulate them

12.04.23
Faculty Stories