Kimberly A. Christen

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I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies and Director of Digital Projects at the Plateau Center for American Indian Studies at Washington State University. My work explores the intersections of cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, intellectual property rights, the ethics of openness, and the use of digital technologies in and by indigenous communities globally. I have worked in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia over the last decade with Warumungu community members on a range of projects including a book, an interactive website, and a community archive. My collaborations with the Warumungu focused on alliance-making in cross-cultural projects. My book, Aboriginal Business: Alliances in a Remote Australian Town was published in 2009 by the School of Advanced Research as part of their Global Indigenous Politics Series. I am currently working on several digital humanities projects that explore ethical issues of openness and access in relation to indigenous cultural protocols and digital archives. I am the Director of the Plateau Peoples' Web Portal, a collaboratively curated site of Plateau cultural materials. I am also working with the Center for Digital Archaeology at UC Berkeley to develop Mukurtu: an indigenous content management system and digital archive built around the particular needs of indigenous peoples globally. This site contains links to my publications, presentations, courses, and projects. Explore. Engage.

Questions? Contact me @ kim.christen@gmail.com