Debra Harry, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Gender, Race, and Identity
woman holding book in front of bookshelf

Summary

Biography

Debra Harry is an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Race, and Identity at the University of Nevada, Reno. Harry's research analyzes the linkages between biotechnology, intellectual property and globalization in relation to indigenous peoples' rights. Harry also teaches online courses for the University of Nevada, Reno, UCLA's Tribal Learning Community and Educational Exchange Program and UC-Denver's Department for Political Science. Harry is Numu (Northern Paiute), Kooyooe Dukaddo, from Pyramid Lake, Nevada.

Class Materials

  • ETS-280-5505 Native American Identities and Cultures
  • ETS-280 Native American Identities and Cultures
  • ETS-307 Special Topics in Race and Race Relations: Globalization, Biocolonialism, and Indigenous Peoples' Rights

Research Interests:

  • Colonization and Globalization
  • Community-Engaged Research
  • Indigenous Resistance Movements
  • Indigenous Feminisms
  • International Governance and Policy
  • Intersection of cultural heritage and intellectual property
  • Decolonizing research methodologies
  • Indigenous leadership development

Publications

  • "Decolonizing Colonial Constructions of Indigenous Identity: A Conversation Between Debra Harry and Leonie Pihama" in Great Vanishing Act: Blood Quantum and the Future of Native Nations, Edited by Norbert S. Hill, Jr., and Kathleen Ratteree, Fulcrum Press (2017)
  • ‘Biocolonialism And Indigenous Knowledge In United Nations Discourse,' Griffith Law Review Vol 20 No. 3., 2011
  • "Indigenous Peoples and Gene Disputes" 84 Chicago-Kent Law Review 147, 2009
  • "Asserting Tribal Sovereignty over Cultural Property: Towards Protection of Genetic Material and Indigenous Knowledge" published in Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Seattle University School of Law, February, 2007
  • Harry, Debra, "Acts of Self Determination and Self Defense: Indigenous Peoples Responses to Biocolonialism" (in Rights and Liberties in the Biotech Age, by Sheldon Krimsky & Peter Shorett, Roman and Littlefield, 2005

Education

  • Ph.D., Faculty of Education, University of Auckland, 2009