Inaugural Lecture, Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series: "The Trouble with American Indian Sports Team Mascots" with Professor Joseph P. Gone

• Event Date: Thursday, January 22, 2026
• Time: 5:30 pm–7:30 pm (CST)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Talk

Indian sports mascots—including Chief Illiniwek at the University of Illinois—are harmful racial stereotypes. First, the “Indians” of sports culture in America are portrayed inaccurately. Second, the kinds of inaccurate portrayals of the “Indians” of sports culture in America are not particularly novel, inspired, or original, but instead follow enduring historical modes of representing American Indians as a primitive racial group in the United States. Third, as stereotyped portrayals of a primitive racial group, the “Indians” of American sports culture undermine, circumscribe, or overwhelm the efforts of some five million modern-day citizens of federally recognized Tribal Nations in our efforts to recover from longstanding dispossession and marginality in our own homelands. In this public exchange, I will review these arguments, recount my own personal experience with advocating for mascot removal at UIUC, and consider historical university efforts to manage risk associated with sponsoring a popular—albeit harmful—racial stereotype.

About the Speaker

Joseph P. Gone (external link), Ph.D., is the Faculty Director of the Harvard University Native American Program and an international expert in the psychology and mental health of American Indians and other Indigenous Peoples. A professor at Harvard University, Dr. Gone has collaborated with tribal communities for 30 years to critique conventional mental health services and to harness traditional culture and spirituality for advancing Indigenous well-being. As a clinical-community psychologist and action researcher, he has published over 120 scientific articles, and received recognition in his fields through more than 25 fellowships and career awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. An enrolled member of the Aaniiih-Gros Ventre Tribal Nation of Montana, he also served briefly as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Fort Belknap Indian reservation. In 2023, Gone received a Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

About the Series

This lecture launches the Mellon Sawyer Seminar event series At Risk U: the Past, Present & Future of Academic Freedom. The series explores the emergence of risk management as a deeply ingrained organizing feature and priority of modern US universities and considers its implications for academic freedom and democratic governance. Drawing on humanistic methods and with the guidance of a diverse group of scholars across multiple disciplines and interdisciplines, the series supports an inquiry into how risk management took hold, challenge its organizational importance, and explore and assess its implications, particularly for academic freedom and democracy. More information about this series will follow in the new semester.