Erica Tom
Curriculum Vitae
Director of Native American Studies
January 2019 to present
Lecturer, American Multicultural Studies
August 2017 to present
Lecturer, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies
January 2018 to December 2020
Lead Reading & Writing Faculty, Summer Bridge February 2018 to present
SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
EDUCATION
Rutgers University
Doctor of Philosophy, American Studies (May 2017)
California State University, Sonoma
Master of English Literature (May 2012)
University of Washington, Seattle
Bachelor of Arts, English - Minor in Classical Studies (June 2007)
TRAINING & CERTIFICATION
Santa Rosa Junior College Volunteer Firefighter Academy (November 2019 & May 2020)
Advanced Mind-Body Medicine (January 2019)
Basic Psychological First Aid Certificate (November, 2017) International Trauma Center & The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
C1 and C2, E3A Certified Facilitator (June 2017) Equine Experiential Education Association
Trauma Informed Care 101 Certificate (November 2016) Valley of the Moon Children's Center
AWARDS
Center for Environmental Inquiry Research Grant
Different Kinds of Fire
Sonoma State University 2022
“It Takes a Village” Faculty Award Equal Opportunity Program
Sonoma State University, California, May 2021
Social Justice Impact Award
Sonoma State University, California, April 2021
Center for Environmental Inquiry Research Grant
Understanding Cultural Burning
Sonoma State University, California, Spring 2020.
Summer Research & Writing Fellowship, Sonoma State University, California, Summer 2019.
Dissertation Fellowship, The Graduate School, Rutgers University-Newark, 2016-2017.
Animal and Society Institute's Human-Animal Studies Fellowship at Wesleyan University, Summer 2015.
Doctoral Fellowship Graduate Assistantship, Rutgers University, 2012 - 2016.
Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Sonoma State University, 2010-2012.
PUBLICATIONS
Tom, Erica. “Good Fire” The Big Tell Central Valley Film Festival. November 2021.
Tom, Erica. “Land Acknowledgment and Community Engaged Research.” Center for Community Engagement at Sonoma State University. December 2019.
Tom, Erica. "Humanizing Animals: Talking About Prisoners and Horses." Racial Ecologies edited by Leilani Nishime & Kim D. Hester Williams. University of Washington Press 2018.
Tom, Erica. "Gender and Power in Narratives of Natural Horsemanship: Producing 'Prey-Identified' Masculinity'." Humanimalia. 2015.
Tom, Erica with Mira-Lisa Katz. "Pasture Pedagogy: Reflections from the Field on Embodied Learning." Moving Ideas: Multimodal Learning in Communities and Schools. Ed. Mira-Lisa Katz. Peter Lang: New York 2013.
PUBLISHED POETRY
"chimera". Women Studies Quarterly. Spring 2016.
"a wild, gentle thing". Pomona Valley Review. Spring 2014.
"good to leave". Pomona Valley Review. Spring 2014.
"what i learned". Volt. 2013.
WORKSHOPS
“Beyond Stereotypes: Inspired Native” Beyond the Margins Anti-Racism Reading Series, Sonoma State Library. November 17th, online.
“Shelter-in-Place Stress Management” Equi-Sense Mind-Body Medicine group, online. Sonoma County, California. April-June 2020.
“Emotional Resilience.” North Bay Women of Color Conference: Community Healing Through Intersectionality. Sonoma State University. March 30th, 2019.
“Mind-Body Medicine Workshop Series for Fire Survivors.” Equi-Sense, Sonoma County, California. February - April 2019.
INVITED TALKS AND LECTURES
Community Engaged Research: Working Together on Trauma, Symposium, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University, California, April 2021.
“Race, Racing, and Resilience: Horse Sense in Schools, Prisons, and Farms.” Exploring the Unknown Symposium, Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University, California, August 2019.
“Agent of Change: Begin With Your Passion.” Girl Scouts of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, California, May 2019.
"Humanizing Animals: Race and Species in Storytelling." Department of French, McMaster University. Ontario, Canada. March 31st, 2017.
"Successful Public Scholarship". Center for Law and Metropolitan Equity in the Rutgers Law School, April 15th, 2016.
"What is Publicly Engaged Scholarship?" Center for Law and Metropolitan Equity in the Rutgers Law School, December 11th, 2015.
"Horse Training Discourse and Practice, Within and Beyond Buck." NYU Animal Studies Initiative Event: Screening of, and Discussion of Cindy Meehl's Sundance Award winning film 2010 Buck, November 20th, 2013.
PUBLIC EVENTS & INSTALLATIONS
“Native American Heritage Month” 5 events. Sonoma State University, online and in person, November 2020.
“Fire on the Land and in our Lives” Sonoma State University. Established first annual series March 2021.
“Native American Heritage Month” 14 events featuring Native American Scholars and Artists. Sonoma State University, online, November 2020.
"Wildfire Memory Garden Project, Community Gathering." Belos Cavalos, An Equine Experiential Organization. Sonoma County, CA. December 30th, 2017.
"Horses of Newark". Military Park, Newark, New Jersey. October 7th, 2016.
"Humanizing Animals: Race and Species in Storytelling." Paul Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University. Newark, NJ. October 6th, 2016.
"Sights and Sounds: Traversing Senses of the Animal". Wesleyan University. Middletown, CT. September 29th-October 1st, 2016.
"Hippophilia Americana". Belos Cavalos, An Equine Experiential Organization. Sonoma County, CA. October 22nd-25th, 2015
"Locating Lysippe: A Feminist Discussion Group". The Sitting Room, Women's Library. Cotati, CA. 2010-2012.
CONFERENCE PANELS ORGANIZED
“Land Acknowledgment: Process, Practice, and Progress.” California Indian Conference, Sonoma State University, California. November, 2019.
“Creative Becomings: Thinking and Being with Earth and Animal.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Atlanta, Georgia. November 3rd-6th, 2016.
"Tracking Wilderness in Literature, Tourism, and Culture". American Literature Association, Symposium on Frontier and Border Rhetoric, San Antonio, February 25th-28th, 2016.
"Beyond the Stage: Creative Connections of Physical Listening". The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Rice University, Houston, November 8th-11th, 2015.
"Urban Animals". The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, October 9th-12th, 2014.
PRESENTATIONS
“Horses, Pedagogy, and Power.” Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, Sonoma State University, February 2019.
“In the Broken Places.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. University of California, Irvine. November 2019.
“Playing with Fire” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Toronto, Canada. November 2017.
“Blurring the Edge: Becoming with Horses.” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts.” Atlanta, Georgia. November 3rd-6th, 2016.
"Border Horses: Equines as Liminal Figures in McCarthy's Border Trilogy". American Literature Association, Frontiers and Borders Symposium. San Antonio, Texas. February 25th - 26th, 2016.
"Men, Women, Horses and Wolves: The Instructive Interspecies Relationships of Cormac McCarthy". The Cormac McCarthy Society Conference. University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee. October 8th - 10th, 2015.
"Unsteady Horses: Exploring the Unstable Lives (and Symbols) of Equines in the Newark Mounted Police Unit." Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts. Southern Methodist University, Dallas. October 9th -12th, 2014.
"'Wilderness', Racism, and Speciesism: An Analysis of Human Imperialism, Race, and Power in Toni Morrison's A Mercy". Cultural Studies Association. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. May 29th - 31st, 2014.
"The Effects of Natural Horsemanship Within and beyond the Horse World: Gender Essentialism, Subversion, and 'Prey-Identified Masculinity'". The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Notre Dame. South Bend, Indiana. October 2nd - 6th, 2013.
"Equine Equity: Dissonance in the Contemporary Rhetoric and Practice of Women's Horsemanship". Graduate Animal Studies Conference. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan. February 8th, 2013.
"Heart Problems in Seabiscuit: Binding Binaries and Constructing the Extraordinary Among Multitudes". Darkness and Light: The Polarities that Divide History and the Shades of Gray In-Between. Rutgers/New Jersey Institute of Technology Federated Department of History. Newark, New Jersey. Thursday, May 28th, 2013.
"Bridling Bodies: The Fraught Function of Riding in Art and Action". Modernism and the Body. The University of Wyoming. Laramie, Wyoming. February 23rd and 24th, 2013.
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
Director of Native American Studies, Sonoma State University, 2019-present.
Native American & Indigenous Studies Reading Group. Sonoma State University, 2020 to present.
Founder, Equine-Sense. Sonoma County, California. 2018-present.
Development Associate, Center for Law and Metropolitan Equity, Rutgers Law School, Rutgers University-Newark, NJ. 2013 - 2016.
Director of Arts & Education, Belos Cavalos, Equine Experiential Organization, Kenwood, CA. 2016 - 2018.
Director of Performance Art & Movement Research, Belos Cavalos, Equine Experiential Organization, Kenwood, CA. 2014 - 2016.
Assistant to the Director of American Studies, American Studies Program, Rutgers University-Newark, NJ. 2015-2016.
Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School, Office of the Dean of the Graduate School, Rutgers University-Newark, NJ. 2013-2014.
Co-Founder and Facilitator. "Locating Lysippe", a feminist discussion group aiming to promote critical awareness through engagement with Feminist theory and current events at the Women's Library The Sitting Room. Sonoma County, California. 2010-2012.