Dr. Ann Elise Lewallen

Biography

Ann-Elise Lewallen engages with Indigenous frontline communities across Japan, India, and Asia to strengthen relationships to place through critical mapping, heritage practice, and environmental justice. Her academic work focuses on critical Indigenous studies, settler colonialism, gender embodiment, energy justice, and critical geographies in contemporary Japan, India, and the Asia-Pacific. Lewallen advocates for Indigenizing knowledge by centering practices such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge and community mapping to produce sustainable models for planetary health. Her recent book, 'Fabric Indigeneity: Ainu Identity, Gender, and Settler Colonialism in Japan', analyzes Indigenous Ainu women's cultural production as a form of resistance against ongoing Japanese settler colonialism and highlights their efforts to preserve cultural arts while memorializing ancestors. She explores how Ainu women's strategies enable network-building among Indigenous women globally, challenging feminist discourses that favor gender equity. Currently, her research investigates the intersection of scientific discourse and development policy, particularly its impact on Indigenous sovereignty and transnational relationships between India and Japan. Her major work, 'Sovereign Bodies: Energy Colonialism Defying the State in India and Japan', critiques civil society movements against Japan's technological diplomacy in India's energy sector while juxtaposing this with Indigenous knowledge frameworks.

Research Interests

Courses