Indigenizing Technologies for Learning: Kelly Berry on Gaming, Education, and Culture

Native Circles

This episode features Dr. Kelly Berry, an enrolled citizen of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma (Plains Apache) with affiliations to the Kiowa and Choctaw Nations. Dr. Berry is a Mellon Impact Post-Doctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. His groundbreaking research explores the intersections of eSports, Native American education, and technology, focusing on infusing Indigenous knowledge into classrooms and reimagining the possibilities of gaming through an Indigenous lens.

In this episode, Dr. Farina King and Dr. Davina Two Bears discuss Dr. Berry's work with him regarding Indigenizing eSports and game technologies. Dr. Berry shares his vision for education in Indigenous communities, considering how culture, technology, and education come together in innovative ways.
Dr. Berry earned a Master's of Public Health from the University of Oklahoma and then a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from Kansas State University. Before his current position, Dr. Berry contributed as an Indigenous Initiatives Research Associate and curriculum advisor for Kansas State University’s Indigenous Education Leadership Certificate Graduate Program. His extensive teaching experience includes faculty appointments at Upper Iowa University, Bacone College, Cameron University, and Comanche Nation College, and he is a certified 5-12 social studies teacher in Oklahoma and Kansas.
A past fellow of Harvard University’s Management Development Program, he is also a current fellow in the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute Tribal Professional Governance Program and Arizona State University’s Indigenous Peoples Leadership Academy. Dr. Berry serves on the American Educational Research Association Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Committee and is a University Council for Educational Administration Barbara L. Jackson Scholar.
Resources:
Dr. Kelly Berry, bio webpage for Esports and Co-Curriculuar Innovation at the University of Oklahoma
Berry, Kelly. "eSports in Indian Education: A Case Study." PhD diss., Kansas State University, 2024.
Berry, Kelly. "Using that Good Medicine: An Indigenous Autoethnographic Recount of Teaching and Learning with Elders during COVID." In F. King and W. Davies (Eds.) COVID-19 in Indian Country: Native American Memories and Experiences of the Pandemic (forthcoming).
NAS Mellon Impact Fellowship at University of Oklahoma website