Vice Chairman Receives Oklahoma Political Science Award

Comanche Nation Vice Chairman Cornel Pewewardy received the Oklahoma Political Science Association’s 2023 Scholar of the Year award during a conference at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) in Edmond.

At the conference, there was a collection of professors from various universities and community colleges who were associated with the Oklahoma Political Science Association.

“The conference is an annual conference of the Political Science Association, and the host really designate what their theme may be,” Pewewardy said. “And I think because it's at UCO and in Oklahoma, it was about sustaining…the communities in which we live, particularly the government because you know we do have and I'm part of the faculty and the masters of public administration, so I not only teach undergraduate courses in National American Government but also I teach graduate classes in American National Government and tribal government courses.”

According to Pewewardy, the award is a scholar award.

“What they had in mind is the collective summary of my portfolio that not only includes political science but all the academic areas in which I taught in Native Studies, curriculum and instruction and government, tribal government, the courses that I'm teaching right now at UCO,” he said.

The announcement came as a surprise to Pewewardy.

“I was also the keynote for this conference, and I gave my talk, which it was titled The Only Good Settler is a Decolonized Settler, and so I unpacked the politics of tribal government here in the state of Oklahoma through my keynote talk,” he said. “And once I was done, they surprised me with a very short brief presentation that I was not aware of, so I was really surprised and glad because many of my students were in the audience to witness this because my students only see me in the classroom they don't see me outside in the professional conferences presenting and talking and doing community work with colleges and universities throughout the country.”

To win the award, a recipient has to be a faculty member in the tenure track at one of the higher education institutions that are members of the Political Science Association.

“So that includes all the major research universities, comprehensive and community college universities that are throughout the state of Oklahoma,” Pewewardy said. “And so, they designate a teacher, a scholar, and a student leadership and community service, and so I guess the merits involve the summary of research, which is both published books and also refereed articles and numerous presentations and professional conferences that are held all over the United States and Canada.”

His most recent out-of-state conference was in New Mexico in October. Pewewardy has also published a book, Unsettling Settler-Colonial Education.

“I would like to mention that the notoriety that I'm receiving, it's coming later in my life, in my career because early I've been mounting so much of trying to get through my degree programs and my bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in elementary ed and my master's degree in educational management and development at New Mexico State and my doctorate at Penn State University and a post-doc at the University of Oklahoma,” he said. “And so, from that, that really is the foundation to pursue a career in higher ed. And so that was my ticket to get in to teach college courses and be on tenure track faculty wherever I had applied.And so right now, I'm very fortunate to be recruited to places that I thought would never have had an opportunity to even work. So, it's come later in my life, and I'm just really fortunate, and I just like to tell students that are going through, just don't give up. Always continue wherever you may be. I mean, just look at me: I'm working another full-time job and in my retirement. So, I'm not too good at being retired. So, I continue to do what I love in pursuit of teaching young people to be leaders for tomorrow, and I'll do it because I have purpose. It has meaning for me.”

On Wednesday, November 15, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, invited him to speak on Native American culture in education.

Pewewardy was hired at UCO during the summer of 2023 as a tenure-track professor.