Theresa Ambo
Associate Professor
Theresa Jean (Stewart) Ambo is an associate professor in the Department of American Indian Studies and Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her primary research focuses on the historical relationships and contemporary partnerships between Native Nations and public universities. Theresa also collaborates with community members and colleagues to examine settler land acknowledgment statements and histories of universities. Presently, Theresa is the lead PI of the Remembering, Restorying, and Reclaiming Project, a community-based research program funded by the Spencer Foundation examining the intersection of land tenure and public education in California.
She holds a B.A., M.Ed., and Ph.D. from UCLA and is a William T. Grant Scholar (class of 2027). Theresa’s research has been funded by the Spencer, Lumina, and William T. Grant Foundations and published in Social Text, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, American Educational Research Journal, and The Journal of Higher Education.
Departments
Areas of Expertise and Advising Interests
Other Affiliations
Titles and Positions
- Associate Professor
Education
- Ph.D. in Education, University of California, Los Angeles
- M.Ed. in Student Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles
- B.A. American Indian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
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UC San Diego Inclusive Excellence Award
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William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program
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Society of Hellman Fellowship
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Association for the Study of Higher Education Special Merit Award
Select Publications
- Ambo, T. J. & Gavazzi, S. (2025). Family Science, Land-Grant Universities, and the Daunting Legacy of the “Land Grab” Institution. Journal of Family Therapy and Research, 2025(17), 112-126.
- Ambo, T. J. (2023). Tribal community-university partnerships for Indigenous Futures. In: Perna, L.W. (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, Vol 39, 473-519.
- Ambo, T. J. (2023). Unsettling mission statements: An Indigenous critique of espoused institutional responsibilities. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 16(5).
- Stewart-Ambo, T. J. & Stewart, K. L. (2023). From Tovaangar to the University of California, Los Angeles: The transfer of Gabrielino-Tongva homelands from time immemorial to present. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 46(2), 125-150.
- Ambo, T. J. & Rocha Beardall, T. (2023). Performance or progress? The physical and rhetorical removal of Indigenous peoples in settler land acknowledgments at land-grab universities. American Educational Research Journal, 60(1), 103–140.
- Vaughn, K. & Ambo, T. J. (2022). Trans-Indigenous education: Indigeneity, relationships, and higher education. Comparative International Education, 66(3), 508-533.
- Stewart-Ambo, T. J. (2021). “We can do better:” University leaders speak to tribal-university relationships. American Educational Research Journal. 58(3), 459-491.
- Stewart-Ambo, T. J. & Yang, K. W. (2021). Beyond land acknowledgments in settler institutions. Social Text. 39(1), 21-46.