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SDSU professor honored as ‘emerging scholar’

Dr. Olivia Chilcote, a professor at San Diego State University
Dr. Olivia Chilcote, a professor at San Diego State University, has been honored as an emerging scholar by “Diverse: Issues in Higher Education,” a national magazine.
(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Olivia Chilcote, a Native American, recognized for her work on indigenous cultures

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San Diego State University’s Olivia Chilcote — an indigenous woman and assistant professor of American Indian studies — has been honored as an emerging scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, a national magazine.

Chilcote teaches an array of classes focused on American Indian identity, indigenous people of California, American Indians in film and television, and federal indigenous law, among other topics. She has also served as the faculty administrator for the Native American Student Alliance, a student organization that promotes recruitment and retention of indigenous students.

Being honored by the magazine as an emerging scholar came as a shock to Chilcote, who is on maternity leave and was unaware of the nomination before learning that she was picked from hundreds of nominations.

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“I feel reaffirmed in my place as a native woman professor, and knowing that my colleagues and peers see value in my research, my teaching and my career,” she said. “It was a really nice feeling because impostor syndrome is a real issue that happens, especially for women and women of color in academia.”

Impostor syndrome, which is a chronic sense of self-doubt, impacts about 70 percent of people at some point in their lives, according to research published in the International Journal of Behavioral Science. But myriad studies show it is most persistent among women and people of color who feel underrepresented at work and school.

Before being hired as an assistant professor at SDSU three years ago, she earned a bachelor’s degree in ethnic and women’s studies from Cal Poly Pomona, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees in ethnic studies from UC Berkeley.

Chilcote always knew that she wanted to teach someday, but it wasn’t until she started her graduate degree program that she decided to become a college professor so she could both pursue research topics and educate the next generation of scholars.

As a member of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians — a tribal nation based in Oceanside — Chilcote is the first full-time, tenure-track professor from a Southern Californian tribe in SDSU’s American Indian Studies Department in at least 15 years, Department Chair David Kamper said. Kamper, along with Monica Casper, who is the dean of the College of Arts and Letters, nominated Chilcote to be considered for this year’s emerging scholar list.

“Her research is cutting edge in the sense what she’s trying to do for native California,” Kamper said. “What’s so important about her research is working with California communities, and she’s super involved with all different kinds of research and academic institutions in the state, all focused toward promoting a better understanding of indigenous Californians.

With 18 federally recognized tribes, San Diego has the greatest number of tribes living within one county throughout the United States. Since SDSU operates on land that was historically part of the Kumeyaay nation, Casper said it’s important to have a professor who focuses her research on topics that impact the local indigenous communities.

“Given where we’re located — we’re on Kumeyaay land, we’re in a space that has a significant tribal population — these issues of Native Americans are very critical for how we think about the state,” Casper said.

At 31, Chilcote is the youngest of this year’s batch of 15 emerging scholars honored by the magazine. Since joining the department, Kamper said that she has excelled professionally, in part because she can connect well with students, being that she is close to their age range.

She is also able to take complex and serious subjects, like the disproportionately high rates of missing and murdered indigenous women, and seamlessly fold them into class curriculums in an engaging way for students, Kamper said.

“She discusses real serious and important issues with a way that brings them to life and, also at the same time, doesn’t become so grave, and overbearing, and too upsetting to deal with,” he said.

Chilcote’s presence on campus not only benefits the students who take her classes but also her colleagues, like Kamper, who said he has learned more about the struggles of unrecognized tribes because of her.

Although the San Luis Rey Band was among of the first California tribes to sign treaties with the U.S. government, Kamper said the treaty was never ratified. As a result, they were never granted a reservation.

Tribes that are not recognized also miss out on various educational and social service benefits and are unable to have the government-to-government relationship that federally recognized tribes have, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior website.

Members of recognized tribes are also protected by important laws such as the Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects children from being unjustly removed from their communities, and the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, which protects indigenous burial sites and returns found cultural items to the tribes from which they came.

“All tribes, despite legal status, all have inherent tribal sovereignty because of the fact that we were here before the (United States) ever existed, but the difference is the government doesn’t recognize that inherent tribal sovereignty for some tribes,” Chilcote said. “There’s lots of reasons why, but most of the time, it’s just due to accidents in history and just how things happened over time.”

Dr. Olivia Chilcote, who is a professor at SDSU, poses for photos at her home
Dr. Olivia Chilcote, who is a professor at SDSU, poses for photos at her home on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 in Poway, CA. Chilcote has been honored as an emerging scholar by a national magazine.
(Eduardo Contreras / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Driven in her academic effort by the desire to help her tribe, Chilcote has conducted research in support of the ongoing effort to help them gain federal recognition. She has studied what factors set the San Luis Rey Band apart from other Luiseño tribes in the region and hopes they will one day achieve their goal.

Aside from her teaching and research, Chilcote aims to be a positive example of indigenous success in academia for her students. One barrier to success in higher education for native students, she said, is the long history of missions, boarding schools and forced assimilation under the guise of education that the population has been plagued by throughout the history of America.

“Diversity, for me, is very important because we need to value others’ life experiences and perspectives of the world, and that’s the only way that we can really grow, change and learn — by connecting with other people and what they’ve been through,”Chilcote said.

“When native students do go to college or pursue higher education, it can be an isolating experience just because there are so few native people in higher education, but it also can be very empowering,” she added.

In the future, Chilcote hopes to continue her research on indigenous communities, earn tenure status at SDSU and eventually publish her first book.

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