Polly Hyslop

Polly Hyslop is an assistant professor for the Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  She is from Upper Tanana River Athabascan Dineh and Scottish ancestry.

She was born at a fish camp located near the village of Northway in the interior region of Alaska and grew up in Galena and Tanana, villages along the Yukon River.  She serves on the Peacemaking Advisory Initiative for the Native American Rights Fund.  Her doctoral research focused on the community-design of Circle Peacemaking in Kake, Alaska, located in a remote Tlingit community in southeast Alaska. She is interested in community empowerment through language revitalization, effective communication, and practice of peacemaking as the law of the land. She teaches classes related to Indigenous Dispute Systems Design,  research in Native communities and documenting Indigenous language and knowledge Her interest includes the role of change-makers as volunteers in revitalizing language and local community dispute resolution processes in Indigenous communities in order to maintain and restore balance and healing in relationships within Native communities.