Biography

Celestina is interested in understanding the role gender has played in the leadership and development of American Indian social movements and organizations in Los Angeles and other urban centers. She is also interested in the intersections and tensions between theories guiding community-based research, Indigenous methodologies and epistemologies, and feminist approaches to scholarship, particularly in partnership with communities outside of the academy and for advancing social change. She is currently working on a community-based archival research project with United American Indian Involvement (UAII) which consists mostly of photos. She is building this community archive in partnership with UAII and community members through conducting oral histories in order to interpret source materials, as well as apply a visual culture lens to describe the creative, artistic expressions of the photos.