Dr. Kelsey Dayle John (Navajo) is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona with a joint appointment in American Indian Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies. She studies equine/human relationships with a focus on how these relationships can be used to Indigenize education and research. She is particularly interested in the social, cultural, and historical narratives of equine/human relations. Alongside her work in Indigenous animal studies, Kelsey’s research interests also include: Indigenous feminist studies, American Indian Studies, and foundations of education. She is currently a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and is working on a book project about equine/human relationships in Indigenous methodologies. 

Previously, Kelsey taught in the Dine’ Studies department at Navajo Technical University on the Navajo Nation. She completed her Ph.D. in Education at Syracuse University. For her dissertation research, she worked in partnership with the Navajo Nation to document horse knowledges and stories for the development of Navajo education and research. She has published in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Humananimilia, Edge Effects and several edited volumes including: Indigenous and Decolonising Studies in Education, and Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes. Kelsey is certified in Equine Facilitated Learning through the HERD institute. She is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and in her spare time, she runs with her dogs and trains horses.