Above: The Big Horn Medicine Wheel, Medicine Mountain, Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

This fall, Moravian University’s Department of Global Religions will offer—for the first and only time—Native American Religions (REL 133 PM). In this course, instructor Ryan Goeckner leads you on a journey into traditional myths, rituals, and lifecycle ceremonies of Native American peoples, representing several geo-cultural regions of North America. You’ll also learn about Native American medicinal and healing practices, gender relations, ecological values, and indigenous responses to threats of physical and cultural genocide.

Goeckner is a PhD candidate in the department of anthropology at The Ohio State University. His expertise is in the following areas:

  • Anthropologies of resilience and the future
  • American Indian identities, cultures, activism, and religious traditions
  • Authority and relevance of oral tradition
  • Religion in the United States

He has worked in American Indian communities throughout the Great Plains since 2014, and he is a senior research scientist with the Institute for Indigenous Studies at Lehigh University, the principal academic partner of the American Indian Health Research and Education Alliance.

Goeckner will teach a second course in spring 2023 on the intersection of Native American religions and environmental justice, such as the Keystone XL Pipeline controversy and other similar issues. Stay tuned for details.

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