RISE Colloquium: Dr. Sarah Shear

Hello RISE Supporters!

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Sarah Shear, who will be sharing some of her work with us in a talk titled: The Damming of Social Studies: Examining the Architecture of Settler Colonialism in K-12 Content Standards.

Thursday, May 14, 2026
12:00 - 1:15pm CT
In-person: Location TBA

Abstract:
This talk meets at the crossroads of two major projects—the first is a book-length tracing of settler colonialism across the four major content areas of K-12 social studies in the United States (history, geography, economics, and civics) and how they work in concert to inculcate students to settler-capitalist logics. The second is a closer look at updated data stemming from Dr. Shear’s 2015 national study of Indigenous inclusions and erasures in K-12 U.S. history standards. Using Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s theory of water and the motif of dams and damming, this talk asks: What does it mean to include if inclusion is but a means with which to erase? Like dams, content standards are built to obstruct or to otherwise control knowing and being. There are no multitudes in social studies standards, there has always only been one way of inclusion, a way defined by settler colonialism. In thinking across these projects, this talk ultimately asks: But what if we listened to and believed water? In removing the dams, what might social studies education become?

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Sarah B. Shear is an Associate Professor of Social Studies and Multicultural Education at the University of Washington-Bothell. Her award-winning scholarship examines settler colonialism in K-12 social studies curriculum, popular media, and qualitative research methods. As a member of the Turtle Island Social Studies Collective, Sarah is committed to collective action to combat oppression in education. Her co-edited books include (Re)Imagining Elementary Social Studies: A Controversial Issues Reader, Marking the Invisible: Articulating Whiteness in Social Studies Education, and Insurgent Social Studies: Scholar-Educators Disrupting Erasure & Marginality. Her research has been featured by the Zinn Project, Learning for Justice, Associated Press, Crash Course, and several other news and media outlets. In addition, Sarah has twice been an invited speaker at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Sarah is under contract to publish Dismantling Settler Social Studies and Incorporating Critical Race Media Literacy into Social Studies: A Practical Approach for Elementary Teachers in late 2026/early 2027 with Routledge. When not advocating for anti-colonial social studies futures, Sarah enjoys baking and going on adventures with her fur kids, Nico and Odin.

This presentation will take place in-person (Location TBA). Please RSVP via link provided.

We look forward to seeing you as we continue another exciting season of RISE Colloquia!

Cost: N/A

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