Who controls historical narratives in classrooms? How does schooling shape collective memory and identity? And what happens when Indigenous knowledge systems challenge dominant educational frameworks?

Matt Villeneuve is Assistant Professor of History and American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His scholarship examines Indigenous histories, settler colonialism, education, and the politics of knowledge production. Drawing on archival research and community-engaged scholarship, he studies how schooling has historically functioned as both a tool of dispossession and a site of resistance.

His work challenges conventional narratives about American education by centering Indigenous perspectives and examining how institutions have shaped identity, sovereignty, and belonging.

In this episode, Matt and I explore how education has been used as a mechanism of assimilation and control. We discuss the role of boarding schools, curriculum design, and state policy in shaping Indigenous experiences, as well as the long-term cultural and psychological consequences of those systems. Matt explains how schooling has often served settler colonial goals by erasing language, culture, and community structures.

At the same time, our conversation highlights Indigenous resilience and intellectual traditions. Matt reflects on how Indigenous communities have resisted, reinterpreted, and reimagined education in ways that preserve sovereignty and cultural continuity. We consider what it would mean to move beyond token inclusion and toward a deeper restructuring of how history and knowledge are taught.

This episode invites listeners to rethink the purpose of education in a settler society. It asks whether schools reproduce dominant narratives or create space for plural histories, and challenges us to imagine educational systems that respect sovereignty, complexity, and truth.