Location: CSWS Lyceum, Free
The Center of Southwest Studies will host a free screening of the recently released documentary, Navajo Solar Sunrise, which tells the story of the Navajo Nation’s transition to clean energy through a community solar project. A panel discussion will follow the screening with the film’s director, Angelo Baca (Diné/Hopi), along with Dr. Laurie Williams (Professor of Physics and Engineering and founder of the FLC Navajo Nation Solar Initiative) and Camille Keith (Diné), Engineering ‘22 (FLC Marathon Solar Fellow).
Angelo Baca, PhD, is a scholar, cultural activist, and filmmaker currently teaching as an Assistant Professor of History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences at the Rhode Island School of Design. He centers his research in Indigenous international repatriation, Indigenous food sovereignty, and sacred lands protection. Through his films and activism, Baca focuses on the protection of Indigenous communities by empowering local and traditional knowledge keepers in the stewardship of their own cultural practices and landscapes. Baca is the cultural resources coordinator at Utah Diné Bikéyah, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense and protection of culturally significant ancestral lands and a board member of Durango-based Conservation Lands Foundation.
Baca’s award-winning film, Shash Jaa’: Bears Ears is currently featured in the Center of Southwest Studies’ exhibition, Given Time: Sensory Aesthetics of Reclamation, on view through April 24, 2025.