Marleen Villaneuva

Marleen Villanueva (Pame-Chichimeca) is a faculty member in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University (TCU). She is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto and holds an MA from the University of Texas at Austin in Curriculum and Instruction. Her scholarship bridges Indigenous feminist theory and water protection practices, co-theorizing an expansive understanding of matriarchy and rematriation in collaboration with Indigenous women and two-spirit community members residing near sacred springs in central Texas.

Marleen's work emphasizes the interconnected relationships between Indigenous peoples and water, offering insights into our responsibilities to more-than-human relatives.

Publications:

Co-Author with Fikile Nxumalo: “Decolonial water stories: Affective pedagogies with young children.” Planet Texas 2050-Published Research (2019)

Co-Author with Fikile Nxumalo: “(Re) storying water: Decolonial pedagogies of relational affect with young children.” In Mapping the Affective Turn in Education (pp. 209-228). Routledge (2020).

Co-Author with Fikile Nxumalo: “Listening to water: Situated dialogues between Black, Indigenous and Black-Indigenous feminisms.” In Transdisciplinary Feminist Research (pp. 59-75). Routledge (2020)

Education:

PhD Candidate University of Toronto

Social Justice Education

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

 

MA University of Texas at Austin (2018)

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Cultural Studies in Education

Native American & Indigenous Studies

 

BA University of Texas at Austin (2013)

Spanish Literature

Women and Gender Studies

Native American & Indigenous Studies

 

Areas of Focus:

Indigenous Feminist Research Methods

Water Protection and Environmental Justice

Matriarchy and Rematriation

Sacred Geographies and Indigenous Knowledge Systems