Melinda M. Adams
- Langston Hughes Assistant Professor
- Joint Appointment with Indigenous Studies
Contact Info
Lawrence
Lawrence
Lawrence
Personal Links
Biography —
Dr. Melinda Adams is a member of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science and the Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Kansas. A cultural fire practitioner and scholar, her research focuses on the revitalization of cultural fire (prescribed fire led with Traditional Ecological Knowledge) with Tribes in California and more recently with Tribes in the Midwest. Her work with Indigenous communities lives at the nexus of environmental science (physical geography), environmental policy, and Indigenous studies methodologies. Dr. Adams holds her Bachelor of Science from Haskell Indian Nations University (one of thirty-seven Tribal Colleges located in the U.S.), her Master of Science from Purdue University, and PhD from the University of California, Davis.
Research —
Melinda's current research focuses on the revitalization of cultural burns (small area prescribed fires conducted using Traditional Ecological Knowledge), in collaboration with Tribal Nations in Northern California. She examines plant and soil physical-chemical responses to cultural fire including culturally significant plant yield, soil carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and water holding capacity. This work is rooted in the place-specific, land stewardship lessons of Indigenous cultural fire practitioner-partners.
Broader implications of this research include deploying cultural fire as a climate adaptation strategy while mitigating the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfire in the West.
Her overall research areas of interest incudes pyrogeography, biogeography, and Indigenous Environmental Science, mixed with Native American and Indigenous studies pedagogy and methodology.
Melinda is a former Tribal college professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, having developed research and curriculum intergrading Indigenous Knowledge with Western Science while mentoring/ instructing Native students representing over 130 different Tribal Nations from across the country.
Research interests:
- Pyrogeography
- Biogeography
- Climate Change
- Indigenous Science
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge
- Indigenous Methodologies
Grants & Other Funded Activity —
2024. Principal Investigator. National Science Foundation. Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF EPSCoR). Indigenous Cultural Burns and Research in Resiliency with Tribes.
2024. Principal Investigator. University of Kansas Office of Research New Faculty Research Development Grant. Building Tribal Partnerships for Indigenous-led Cultural Fire Research in Kansas.
2023. Co-Principal Investigator. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sub-award from National Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership. With Johnson, J.T., Sutley, E., Cartwright. P., and Brewer, J.
2023. Co-Principal Investigator. National Science Foundation (NSF) Planning Proposals to Catalyze Innovative and Inclusive Wildland Fire Science through Diverse Collaborations. High-Spatiotemporal Resolution Sensing and Digital Twin to Advance Wildland Fire Science With Chao, H., Xin, M,, and Hu, X.