Center CIRCL Staff

Photo credit: John Paillé

Eve Tuck, Director

Eve Tuck (she/her) is Unangax̂ and is an enrolled member of the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, in Alaska. She is James Weldon Johnson Professor of Indigenous Studies at New York University, and is a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Methodologies with Youth and Communities at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Dr. Tuck grew up in rural Pennsylvania, outside of her Unangax̂ community, and moved to New York City as a young adult for both her undergraduate degree (Eugene Lang College, The New School) and PhD (The Graduate Center, The City University of New York). 

Dr. Tuck is the founding Director of The Center for Collaborative Indigenous Research with Communities and Lands (Center CIRCL) at NYU. She holds a dual appointment in the department of Applied Statistics, Social Sciences, and Humanities (ASH) at Steinhardt, and at the Gallatin School of Individualized Studies. 

Prior to moving back to New York City, Dr. Tuck lived and worked for eight years in Toronto/Tkaronto, where she founded the Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab. At NYU, in addition to the Center CIRCL, she will also create The Visiting Lab, to continue her collaborative research practice. 

Dr. Tuck’s writings and research span nearly 20 years, and attend to Indigenous communities’ relationships to lands and waters, participatory and community-based research practice and ethics, theories of change, Indigenous feminisms, and land education.

Matty Motylenski (they/them) is Kanyen'kehá:ka, First Nations, and an enrolled member of the Bay of Quinte Band of Mohawks. They are an urban NDN with close ties to their community on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Southern Ontario, Canada. Matty holds a bachelor's degree in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration from Yale University. They served as the vice president and outreach coordinator for the Association of Native Americans at Yale (ANAAY) and co-founded Indigenous + Queer (I.Q.).

Matty dedicates their life to public service. Before joining NYU, they worked at Appellate Advocates, a nonprofit criminal defense organization, and as a program assistant for Fordham Law School's Feerick Center for Social Justice.

Matty Motylenski, Program Administrator for Center CIRCL

Alexandria Torres, Program Administrator for Center CIRCL

Alexandria Torres (she/her) is a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent. Alex holds a bachelor's degree in Creative Writing from the Macaulay Honors College at Lehman College and went to Columbia University for their publishing program. 

Alex spent her years before joining NYU working in commercial and academic publishing and as a pre-college tutor. Over the past three years, Alex has turned her attention to administration at NYU, and worked in the Provost’s Office for three years before joining Center CIRCL. Alex is also a trustee on the Community Partnership Charter School Education Corporation board.

Jade Nixon, NYU Provost Postdoctoral Fellow

Jade Nixon (she/her) is Afro- and Indo-Caribbean. She is an advanced PhD candidate at the Women & Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, Canada. Jade was born and raised outside of the Caribbean region in a city on the outskirts of Tkaronto. Haundenosaunee and Anishinaabe lands and waters held her down as she grew up far away from the islands, Caribbean Sea, and Atlantic Ocean that she longed to be near. 

Before joining New York University, Jade was the inaugural Black and Indigenous Waterways Research Fellow at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research thinks with Black women about their theories of gathering with the Atlantic Ocean and their friends onboard the Ubersoca Cruise ship. Jade’s postdoctoral research builds on her doctoral work to learn more about the relationships that Black and Indigenous girls have to the waterways and friends in New York City.

Graduate Student Assistants

  • Nicole Franklin

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Nicole Franklin (MSW, RSW) (she/her) is a Black Caribbean Social Worker and PhD student in the Sociology of Education program at New York University, Steinhardt. Nicole’s research interests include exploring Black and Indigenous feminist theories of care through critical arts-based research methods.

  • Diane Hill

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Diane Hill (she/her) is a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames. She is a PhD student in the Sociology of Education program at NYU Steinhardt. Diane’s research is situated within Critical Indigenous Studies and Education. Her research attends to theories of sovereignty and self-determination through campus organizing among Indigenous students.

  • Jo Billows

    Graduate Research Assistant

    Jo Billows (they/them) is Northern Coast Salish (Homalco) and a PhD student in the Sociology of Education Department at New York University. Their research interests include land education, visual and participatory research methods, and queer and urban Indigeneity.