Kari Chew
April 1, 2022
“Chokma, saholhchifoat Kari A. B. Chew. Chikashsha saya. Chikashshanompa' ithanali. Greetings, my name is Kari A. B. Chew. I am a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and a Chickasaw language learner.”
Dr. Kari Chew is an assistant professor of Indigenous Education in the department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She earned her doctorate in Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies with a minor in Linguistics from the University of Arizona in 2016. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the NEȾOLṈEW̱ “one mind, one people” Indigenous Language Partnership at the University of Victoria in 2020. As a scholar-practitioner committed to Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation, her work focuses on additional language learners, language curriculum, and the role of technology in Indigenous language education. She works closely with the Chickasaw Nation on language education projects, including Rosetta Stone Chickasaw and a complementing curriculum for high school students in Oklahoma public schools.
Dr. Chew has made extensive use of self-archiving in an institutional repository. "Self-archiving," also known as "green open access," allows an author to archive a version of their work into an online repository, making it freely and openly accessible. Dr. Chew is the author of numerous openly published articles including "Storying an interconnected web of relationships in Indigenous language reclamation work and scholarship," and "Chikashsha alhihaat Chikashshanompa' anompoli katihma: Chickasaws are still speaking Chikashshanompa" (written in both Chickasaw and English). Additional open articles, videos, and other resources by Dr. Chew can be found by searching SHAREOK, the joint institutional repository for the libraries of the University of Oklahoma (OU), Oklahoma State University (OSU), and the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO).
Why is open access important to you?
As a Chikashsha (Chickasaw) scholar committed to Indigenous language reclamation, most of my research is collaborative and grounded in the aspiration that Indigenous languages will be spoken for generations to come. Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation movements are led by Indigenous Peoples and not universities. Therefore, any work about Indigenous languages that takes place at the university must be shared back with communities. Open access publishing is one way to do this. Beyond peer-reviewed articles and chapters, I work to share knowledge through short film, artwork, guidebooks, and more. Institutional repositories provide a permanent online location and URI so that others can find, share, and cite these other forms of scholarship.
Would you encourage others to self-archive their work in an institutional repository? If so, why?
I would encourage others to utilize institutional repositories like SHAREOK. Beyond making scholarship more accessible, institutional repositories help protect authors by ensuring that they are sharing their work legally. Publishers have different rules about how and when authors can distribute their work. The librarians who support SHAREOK have helped me by communicating with publishers on my behalf to verify that work can be shared. In most cases, there is a way to share a version of the work even if the work was not originally published open access.
How did you learn about self-archiving your work?
I learned about self-archiving in my previous position as a postdoctoral fellow with the NEȾOLṈEW̱ “one mind, one people” Indigenous Language Partnership at the University of Victoria. This Indigenous-led project prioritized sharing information back to Indigenous communities.
Considering your extensive experience in self-archiving (AKA green open access) – the act in which an author archives a version of their work into an online repository, making it freely and openly accessible – could you share your thoughts in that area?
My advice is to research a publisher or journal’s policy about open access publishing and copyright prior to submitting your work. Some journals charge to publish open access and the fee can be very high. OU Libraries offers some support, but the award may not cover the full cost. Publishers may also have an embargo period that prevents authors, who did not originally publish open access, from self-archiving articles on institutional repositories for months or even years. While such practices may be viewed as the norm in academic publishing, they restrict efforts to share knowledge beyond the academy.
Other journals are always open access without cost to the author. For Indigenous scholarship, the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) journal has an exemplary approach to publication. All articles are published open access and copyright resides at all times with the named author/s and if noted their community/family/society (https://winhec.org/journal). I look forward to more publishers honoring Indigenous protocols for knowledge sharing through their publication practices.